


Heat Activated Aftermath

by Delenn (goddessdel)



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: April Showers 2015, Attempted Abortion, Betrayal, Character Death, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Older Fic, Other things I've forgotten, Pregnancy, Read at Your Own Risk, Suicide Attempt, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-19
Updated: 2006-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-25 21:51:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 43,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3826312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessdel/pseuds/Delenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a particularly hard to control heat, where the fates conspire against her, Max isn't the only one who will have some growing up to do as other parts of her life come back to play.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heat

**Author's Note:**

> Date Started: August 01, 2002. Date Finished: December 19, 2006
> 
> Yes, those are accurate dates. This has not been reviewed/edited since, so you're at the mercy of my writing quality ten-fifteen years ago. I apologize for my younger self as needed, particularly when it comes to any mature scenes.
> 
> Thanks to CindyZ, who came up with the great line, “I’m fine, just a little sore from having hot-monkey-sex with Alec last night!” I tweaked it a little, but the idea was hers.
> 
> And huge thanks to H2Olilly, my Goddess and Savior, for betaing, giving ideas, helping with my plot line, helping with my writer's block, and providing the inspiration that has gotten many a chapter written.

## !~(*Chapter 1: Heat*)~!

Max had done over three thousand push-ups, paced the confines of her apartment exactly five hundred and twenty four times, and was just getting out of her tenth cold shower. Frustrated, she called out to her roommate, “OC? You out there?” before exiting the bathroom, fully dressed.

In response, Original Cindy looked up from where she’d been sitting on the couch, tried to seem perky, and yawned. “Yeah, OC’s here, boo.”

Biting her lip, then letting it go with a sigh, Max started her pace route again. A borderline whimper/yell escaped her. “I hate this!”

With a slightly concerned glance at the unusual outburst, Original Cindy nodded, “Those was some sick bastards at Manticore, doing this to you.” She looked at the clock and offered sympathetically, “Only ten hours left. Maybe you should try to get some sleep, boo?”

Max looked at her friend guiltily; the other woman was tired and trying not to show it. Besides, Max knew that she wasn’t exactly good company at the moment. “Yeah, that sounds good. You get some sleep too.”

Hiding her relief extremely well, Original Cindy nodded, “You ain’t gotta tell OC that twice,” and stood up with another yawn.

Max dutifully walked into her bedroom and laid down, not even bothering to take off her clothes. She counted sheep mentally, just for something to distract her, and listened to the easy rhythm of her friend’s breathing.

The effects of the cold shower soon wore off, though, and Max could barely stay in bed, let alone sleep, as she’d originally intended. Dropping out of bed to do another ten push-ups, Max vaguely considered calling Original Cindy. Quickly she dismissed the idea, already feeling bad enough for keeping her friend up.

However, she was spared much debate on the matter. Almost as soon as she got up, her beeper went off. Thankful for an easy distraction, Max grabbed her jacked and bolted out the door as quietly as she could.

!~(*)~!

By the time Max reached Logan’s, she had broken out in a full on sweat. The effort of not jumping the first male she saw was driving her mad. She kept one thought running through her mind, _It’s gotta be pretty damn important for Logan to beep me at this hour!_ Important was good, preferably involving a solo mission where she got to run a lot.

Skidding in the unlocked door, she hastily wiped at her sweat-soaked brow and demanded, “What’s up, Logan?”

At her question, Logan didn’t even look up from his computer, “Good, you’re here. I have an assignment for you. Alec will be here in a minute.”

Fidgeting from her spot by the door, Max, feeling suffocated in the heat of her jacket, squeaked in dismay, “Alec?”

Spinning his chair around, Logan finally looked up, “Yeah, it’s a pretty dangerous mission…” he looked at Max - she was sweating. “Max, are you okay?”

But Max’s mind was only processing one thing, _Alec, here. Another X5. Alec. No!_ She moaned and dropped to the floor ungracefully, “Ohhhhhh!”

This was not normal. Logan jumped up in concern, _She seemed a bit hyper when she came in._ “Max, what’s wrong?”

Max looked up, her big brown eyes filling with tears of frustration, she whimpered just loud enough for Logan to hear, “I’m in heat.”

Feeling a weight like being frozen descend upon him, Logan stood perfectly still. “You mean…”

At that moment, Alec walked through the door; he stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he breathed in… _Her sent. Heat. Max. Max in heat._ “Oh, shit.”

Hearing his voice, Max looked up; she was disheveled and hot and Alec was looking _so_ good right now, “Unhuh.” She wasn’t sure whether she was agreeing that this was so bad or so good or both.

In a final, desperate attempt, Alec held his breath and tried to slowly back out the door, casting a pleading look at Max, yet unable to tear his eyes from hers. “I really should go.”

Logan was eying the two trasgenics wearily, not entirely sure what was going to happen, or how he could help. But Logan was spared the attempt, for no sooner had Alec spoken then Max jumped up and hurtled into him. Logan’s presence melted away. Gasping, Max whispered huskily, “Your apartment. Now.”

!~(*)~!

The fact that they made it to Alec’s apartment was a miracle. By the time they did, neither was coherent enough to stop what was happening; both had their clothes off within a minute, the lack of contact that took was bordering on painful.

Instantly, Alec attacked Max’s lips in a brutal kiss, and Max returned in kind. Tongues dueled, while hands roamed bodies.

When they broke for air, Alec managed to get out an almost rational thought, “Bed.” Small words were his best bet at the moment.

With a little groan, Max nodded and they steered towards it, never breaking contact. Max was backed into the couch, which she gave a mighty shove with her free hand and sent halfway across the room, uncaring where it stopped.

Alec found a chair or two in his way, which he promptly kicked. A pathway was made haphazardly to the bedroom, both too absorbed in each other to go in a straight line. Reaching the bedroom door seemed to take much too long.

Finally, enough was enough; Alec tossed Max onto the bed and crawled after her in one fluid motion. It had to be now; he was hard and aching to the point of explosion - heat was a wonderful thing.

Max’s pussy lips were swollen and she was so wet that she was leaking on the sheet; all she could think of was having Alec inside of her.

With purely animalistic passion, Alec slammed his cock all the way into her with one thrust. Max moaned in pleasure, “Gaahh!”

Alec began to thrust in and out, stretching her a little more each time; Max matched his rhythm and cried out, digging her nails into his skin as her hands ran up and down his back. “Harder. Faster.”

He grinned in agreement and rolled them over, so Max was on top. She released her grip on him and sat up at the same time, so she had more freedom of movement. He moaned when she squeezed his cock with her inner muscles, “Ohh, yes!”

Max began to ride him, setting a furious pace, head thrown back, hands clutching the sheets.

Alec held her hips in his hands, keeping her steady as he thrust up and she pushed down. He smirked slightly in male pride at the look on her face; making it obvious he was hitting her g-spot.

She moaned, breasts bobbing up and down, back arched, “Oh my god!”

Alec caught one breast in his mouth and began to twirl his tongue along the nipple. One hand left her hips and traveled to her clit, which he pinched, eliciting a scream from his partner.

Max removed one hand from the sheets in a two-can-play-that-game kind of way, and leaned forward, moaning at the change in penetration. She ran her hand up his torso, stopping at his nipples. Delicate fingers played with them awhile, twisting and turning the flesh. Alec groaned.

They continued this way a long time. Flesh meeting flesh, bodies moving ever faster, grunts of bliss their only comments.

When the pleasure was nearly unbearable, Alec lifted his head and kissed Max. She flipped them over, moaning as the change in position allowed Alec to thrust in deeper, stretching her even farther.

He lifted her legs up, hooking them over his shoulders, which she was more then happy to oblige, accepting as his full weight pressed down on her wonderfully. He was moving so fast and hard that it almost hurt, going even deeper with this new position, but that just added to the pleasure.

Alec put all his strength into his last thrust, and Max squeezed him with her inner walls, hard. Both exploded with screams, but no names were called in the height of release.

Spent, they separated and rolled over, falling into a temporary, dreamless sleep with their backs to one another.


	2. Activated

## !~(*Chapter 2: Activated*)~!

Alec’s first thought upon awaking was that he was cold; it took him a second to discover why. _Someone’s hogging the covers!_ It took another full minute before the pervious night came crashing back into his memory, in all it’s vivid detail. _Oh, shit._ Not sure what else to do, Alec rolled over and snatched back a bit of cover.

Even sleeping, Max didn’t want to share. She pulled back on the bedding and curled into a little ball with a huff, using the blanket as a sort of cocoon.

Alec vaguely tried to remember when they’d gotten under the covers but came up blank. Knowing that he’d never get the blanket back now, Alec looked up at the clock, _7:03, might as well get up._

Sighing, he got out of bed, pulled on some jeans, and proceeded to inspect the damage to his living room. Furniture was pushed out of the way (only some of it cracked), clothing was thrown everywhere, and the door was slightly ajar.

Alec shrugged and shut the door, locking it firmly, more than glad that such a lack of security had gone unnoticed. He went to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee before returning to the living room and collecting their clothes. _Max is gonna kill me for this, no matter whose fault._

It took an insane amount of time to find Max’s bra, which he finally discovered on top of the fridge, hiding in shadows. Her jacket was actually outside of the door, and her gloves had somehow managed to disappear in the cushions of his couch. Convinced that he had all of Max’s clothing from the night before, Alec wandered back into his bedroom and deposited the folded outfit on his side of the bed.

Alec was just becoming aware that Max’s hair had curled slightly in her sleep, when a loud whistling announced that the coffee was done.

He raced to shut it off and poured both Max and himself a cup of coffee. Alec stood up straight and carried both cups to the door, prepared to face his bedmate. It wasn’t until that exact moment that he realized how much his back hurt from the deep nail gouges she had left.

Max cursed a few times, and emerged fully dressed from the bedroom. She grabbed her cup of coffee on her way out the door, without touching him, and called back from the hallway, “This means NOTHING!”

Alec raised his cup in a salute-like gesture, even though she couldn’t see him and muttered, “See you at work, Maxie,” he could hear her stop at the stairs, before angrily pounding down them.

!~(*)~!

_Asshole,_ Max pounded her fist against the locker, and cringed when it left a large dent.

Noticing the dent with a raised eyebrow of concern, Original Cindy came over to Max’s locker and patted her on the shoulder, letting out a deep sigh. “It’s over now, boo.”

Max exhaled slowly, leaning her head on her dented locker. “For all my revved up genes, I can’t ever control this. God, OC!” She felt like killing something, someone, but Max already knew it was her own fault. _I never should have left the apartment!_

Blissfully unaware of the vivid details from the night before, Original Cindy rubbed her friend’s back in a soothing gesture, “Well, at least you’ll never see him again.”

“Hey, OC. Max,” intoned a sickeningly cheerful and familiar voice.

Max jumped and tried to cover it by acting startled and glaring. _The glaring is a must,_ “Can’t you see we were talking?”

Some of his cockiness fading as he talked to Max, Alec shrugged, “Logan called, he’s all riled up about some case. Made me late for work; I couldn’t get the guy to calm down!”

Original Cindy grinned at the description of Logan, “Roller-Boy called OC too,” she turned to Max. “Actually he called last night, wanted you. OC told him I ain’t had a clue where you was.”

Max bit her lip, stopping just before it bled and replying nervously, “I’ll have to swing by after work, see what’s up.” She knew perfectly well what was up and had no idea what she was supposed to say. Somehow, she figured that _hey, Logan, not to worry, all that happened was lots and lots of out-of-control, really hot sex with – and stopping there._ Nope. Not gonna cut it.

Almost on cue with her mental train of thought, Alec grinned suddenly, and Max restrained an urge to slap him - possibilities of just what he was grinning at running through her head. Original Cindy wasn’t so subtle, “Boy, what you grinning at?”

Not willing to air out the previous nights happenings in the middle of Jam Pony, or call Max on what the were both undoubtedly thinking about, Alec covered quickly, noting the aggressive look in Max’s eyes, “Get a load of Normal!”

Both women turned around, and Sketchy came up behind Alec, clapping him hard on the back, not seeing Alec grimace in pain. Sketchy drawled, “Hey, man,” then poked his head over Alec’s shoulder, “that is so wrong.”

Glad for an easy distraction, Max strode up to Normal with Original Cindy following her and pointed out, “We bust our asses getting here on time, and you stroll in,” she checked her watch for accuracy, “half hour late!”

“And looking all partied out,” Original Cindy added, with an assured nod. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alec wince as someone banged into him and wondered what was going on.

Very much caught, Normal paled but pointed at his watch, “Bip, bip, people. Consider yourselves lucky that you get a half hour more to slack off.”

Wanting away from there as quickly as possible, Alec grabbed a package from Normal and sprinted past them, out the door. Sketchy came up next to them, package in hand, looking in the direction the transgenic had just left. “What’s up with Alec today?”

Max shrugged and let Original Cindy steer her over to the packages, with a casual, “It’s Alec, he probably got bored.”

Sketchy seemed unconvinced, but the women ignored him and headed towards their bikes, one very much more aware of what was up with Alec than the other.

Taking a moment to look around, Sketchy yelled, “Hey, wait up,” and hurried after them awkwardly.


	3. Aftermath

## !~(*Chapter 3: Aftermath*)~!

Max parked her motorcycle and got off gingerly. _Damn, I should have called in sick to work again._ After last night, she was more than a little sore and a day of biking hadn’t helped that at all.

Now she had to face Logan. Trying to think of an explanation left her queasy, and the feeling increased as she rode the elevator. _I gotta calm down, last thing I need is to get sick now._

Feeling slightly better when she got off the elevator, standing outside Logan’s door, Max took a deep breath and knocked.

Following the distinct sound of wheels, Logan opened the door and stared at her, before rolling out of the way. “Come in.”

Max walked in nervously, vaguely wondering why he didn’t have his exoskeleton on. “So, uh, you’ve been trying to reach me? Why didn’t you page me?”

Logan rolled behind her towards the living room, “I did, right after you left. I guess you didn’t hear it.” The second part came out too formal for Logan and sounded sharp to Max’s keen ears.

Plopping down on a couch, “Oh,” Max fidgeted for a second, trying in vain to get comfortable, “Logan, I’m so sorry, I can’t even began to expl-”

Effortlessly cutting her off, Logan could only think, _I don’t want to hear this, I better stop her now._ “You don’t have to.”

Startled, Max looked up. _What?_ At Logan’s blank look, she surmised, _Better say that out loud,_ “What?”

Rolling forward, Logan sighed. _I wish I could hold her, comfort her. Damn this virus!_ “You don’t have to explain, Max. You told me about your heats - there’s nothing more to it.”

Still stung by his formal tone, Max’s eyes filled with tears that she wouldn’t allow to fall. _Can’t let fall._ She was a better soldier than that. “How can you be okay with this!?”

Not able to see past the cracks in the stone wall that Max had hastily erected, Logan shook his head. “I’m not. But there was nothing that I could do,” he sounded bitter, even to himself, “or Alec for that matter.”

The tears threatened to give way to anger, but still Max winced as though she had been slapped - hard. “Oh god, Logan!”

As close as he dared with the virus threatening his life, Logan leaned forward, “We’ll get through this, together.”

Putting her head in her hands, Max lamented, “Our life is so messed up!”

Finally sensing the emotion in her words, Logan whispered soothingly, “It’ll be okay. I love you, Max.”

Max jumped up, grimacing at the pain it caused, and headed for the door. “I’m going to talk to Joshua, maybe we can work on some more leads on Sandeman.”

As he watched her go, Logan frowned; something was off about her. “Max, wait,” she turned, “are you okay? You’re almost limping.”

Max’s eyes widened, and she stood there, halfway out the door. _I’m fine, just a little sore from having hot-monkey-sex with Alec last night! Oh, god, did I really just think that?_ “I’m fine, Logan, just pulled something at work. Nothing major.”

Satisfied with her excuse; Max bolted out the door, and away from Logan’s hurt gaze.

!~(*)~!

Alec finally caught up with Max two days later. At first, he’d wanted to avoid her, but then he’d realized that they had to talk, and Max had been nowhere to be found. Escape and evade training was serving her well, denial even better.

He’d even staked out Crash every night, but she hadn’t showed. Finally, Alec had spotted Original Cindy at Crash, and she’d invited him over for pancake breakfast while only semi-drunk and needing his help to snag her new honey. It was a fairly legitimate bargain and all the excuse he needed.

Suddenly reconsidering the merits of this plan, Alec knocked against the door and waited for someone to open it. From inside Max called, “Keep cooking, OC, I’ll get the door!”

No time to retreat; the door opened. Max stared at him for a minute and then hissed, “What are you doing here?”

Pushing aside any nervousness, Alec grinned as innocently as he could, “I was invited for breakfast,” he brushed past a now fuming Max and walked inside. “Hey, OC, how’s the cooking?”

Original Cindy waved her hand in acknowledgement, but didn’t look up from the pancakes.

Max shut the door with an unnecessary bang and shrugged when Original Cindy’s head snapped around, “Oops?”

Taking note of the strange behavior, Original Cindy shook her head sadly over the door, “Whatever, boo.”

“So, you talked to Logan recently?” Alec asked, attempting to start a conversation.

It took Max a moment to realize that Alec was talking to her. “Why?”

Obviously making conversation wasn’t going to work. _I’m not getting into this with OC here,_ he decided resolutely, shrugging. “Just curious. He ever finish that mission?”

Max pursed her lips, replying tightly, “No.”

Carrying a plate of pancakes, Original Cindy came over to the table and gestured with her free hand for them all to sit. She offered, “What boo means is she’s been avoiding Roller-Boy like the plague.”

As she sat, Max feebly protested, “That’s not true!”

Alec also took a seat and raised an eyebrow towards Original Cindy, “Is that so?”

“Fine, ignore what I say,” Max grumbled.

Max and Alec glared at each other, and were soon embroiled in a staring contest. Original Cindy looked from one to the other then practically dragged Max out of her seat. “Boo, come with OC for a minute, please.”

Satisfied, Alec grinned; Original Cindy’s interruption had made Max look away first. One contest down successfully, he went back to his food.

Once Original Cindy had pulled Max outside and down the hall, where she was pretty sure that Alec couldn’t hear them, she hissed, “What is up with you two!?”

Startled, Max stared at Original Cindy like she had grown two heads. _How can she possibly have guessed?_ “What?”

Shaking her head, Original Cindy stated, “You two have always had that intense Manticore trip going, but this is crazy.”

Max played with her leather jacket nervously. _Intense Manticore trip?_ “OC, nothing is going on!”

“Okay,” Original Cindy nodded calmly, “then explain to OC why you’ve been avoiding both Alec and Logan for the last couple days?”

Hoping that a perfectly timed distraction would appear, Max cast her glance mournfully towards their apartment, “Can we please just go back to eating?”

However, Original Cindy looked like she’d been hit with a ton of bricks. “Oh, lord, boo!”

Looking down, Max winced, “It’s not-”

Original Cindy shook her head and headed back towards the apartment, “As soon as Lover-Boy leaves, we’re having a serious talk.”

Max followed her friend back inside, groaning. _Lover-Boy?_


	4. Explain

## !~(*Chapter 4: Explain*)~!

Breakfast had finished quickly and without much conversation. Original Cindy kept passing accusing glances at Alec, Max’s smile was strained, and Alec could practically feel the tension.

Alec was less then happy; he knew there was no chance of talking to Max after breakfast like he had planned. Instead, she was herding him to the door as Original Cindy called out, “Bye Alec,” from the living room.

Pushing Alec outside, Max glared at him, preparing to shut the door in his face if need be, “Go.”

Grabbing her arm before she could shut the door, Alec pulled Max into the hallway with him, “No. We need to talk.”

Pausing in her struggle, Max’s eyes widened in dismay, “Not now!”

Alec rolled his eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten mentally, “I know that! But we have to talk.” _How stupid does she think I am?_

Unable to decide whether facing Alec or Original Cindy was going to be harder, Max wiggled in the grip he had on her arm, “Alec…”

Even though he would have been more then happy to leave that moment, Alec held fast. “Tonight, after work.”

Max quickly settled on Original Cindy being easier to face and a touch of alarm settled in her voice, “You’re crazy!”

Sighing, Alec pointed out the obvious, “You’re not in heat, relax. We have to talk!”

“Fine,” Max looked more uncomfortable by the second, “just let… go… of… me!” With that, she pulled out of his grasp, spun back into her apartment, and slammed the door in Alec’s face.

Heading down the hall, Alec groaned. _Well, that went better than expected._

Max rested her head against the inside of the door and tried to calm her breathing. _I can’t believe I just agreed to meet with Alec!_ “Ugghhh…”

A finger tapped Max on the shoulder and an anxious voice asked, “Boo?” Max could see that Original Cindy’s face was wracked with concern as she turned around to look at her friend, “What happened?”

Still pretty sore, Max walked gingerly over to the couch. “I don’t know what to say,” the X5 grudgingly admitted.

Original Cindy came and sat next to her friend. _’Splains why she been so uncomfortable lately._ “Start with where you went last night.”

Max had this almost childlike look of consternation on her face as she nodded. “My pager went off, it was Logan.”

Raising an eyebrow, Original Cindy ordered, “Go on, boo.”

“I figured it had to be something pretty big for him to be calling so late, something that would distract me,” Max sighed, “but I got there, and then Alec showed up.”

Original Cindy looked amazed; “You mean to tell OC that you got all the way to Logan’s without jumping anybody’s bones?”

Continuing to stare at the fringe of her jacket, Max nodded again. Original Cindy looked puzzled, “Then it’s all, whammo, Alec?”

Trying to smile, Max looked up at her friend, “Pretty much,” Original Cindy still looked confused, so Max painfully explained, “X5.”

Now it was Original Cindy’s turn to shake her head, “Damn boo, that some messed up shit.”

Looking for all the world like someone had just yanked all her teeth out, Max nodded solemnly, “You’re telling me.”

Fiddling with her hair, Original Cindy asked, “So, what now?”

Max shrugged, “Alec wants to talk.”

“You gotta,” was Original Cindy’s immediate response.

Grimacing, Max got up, and headed to her room. “I know.”

!~(*)~!

Actually, Alec was kind of surprised when he heard a knock on his door that night. He opened it and couldn’t help but stare at Max for a moment. _She looks nervous!_

Reasons all lined up to get her out of there as quickly as possible, Max pushed past him and started pacing through the living room. _I should kill OC for this!_ “I’m here; talk.”

Cocking his head to one side in agreement, Alec shut the door. “I know you want to forget this ever happened–”

Frustrated, guilty, nervous, Max cut him off, exclaiming, “Damn right!”

 _Straight to the point, then._ “But you can’t,” he finished lamely, knowing he sounded stupid and clichéd.

Stopping her pacing route abruptly, Max screamed, “What?!” She stalked up to Alec, her voice moving to a deadly whisper. “Why not.”

Alec stepped away from her, and dodged her question as easily as if it had been a fist. “Manticore never mentioned anything about this to you, did they?”

Looking stunned, Max’s voice had an edge to it, “My heats? No. I didn’t stick around for the full programming, remember?”

Running a hand through his hair, the only sign he gave of nervousness, Alec sighed. “That’s what I thought. I don’t think they figured it out until the X5’s anyway.”

Rolling her eyes, Max inhaled deeply, asking, “Why does any of this matter?”

“Max,” Alec tried his best to stay calm, “what happens when a… cat, let’s say… mates… in heat?”

Clearly irritated and confused, Max turned past him and for the door, “Okay, look, I don’t have time to give you a lesson about nature.”

“ _Max_ ,” the command in his voice stopped her in her tracks. He wanted to grab her and make her pay attention, “Answer me.” He wanted to shake her and hug her and curl up in a little ball and never get up, but the soldier in Alec wouldn’t let him do anything but stand there.

“A cat would get pregnant, is that all-” Max stopped her sentence and spun around, glaring daggers at Alec.

Alec wasn’t looking at her; he wouldn’t look at her or his entire image would crash and burn to the ground, “See?”

Max let out the breath she’d been holding and laughed. It was a shaky laugh. _This is what he was so worried about?_ “I’ve had sex in heat before, Alec. I’ve never been pregnant.”

His gaze shifted from the floor to the kitchen, so he wasn’t facing her. “You’ve never had sex with an X5 before,” it was a statement, not a question.

Her theory starting to falter, Max held her breath again, “So?”

Alec spun around, he was angry and hurting, “So!? So, Manticore designed us that way. You think they wanted their precious transgenics to have offspring with just anybody?”

Taking another step backwards to the door, Max countered, “But my sister…”

Rolling his eyes, Alec informed her, “They were giving all of them drugs; it was one big experiment, with some unexpected side-effects.”

Max shook her head resolutely, “Alec, I’m not pregnant.”

Though the command in Max’s voice was there, Alec could tell that she didn’t feel it. It didn’t matter, either way, not now. Alec sat down on the arm of his couch, he seemed deflated, “Yeah, you are.”

Throwing open the door so hard it almost came off its hinges, Max ran down the hall and out of the building as fast as she could. She barely even registered the fact that it was raining. _Alec’s wrong, everything about me was not pre-designated by Manticore!_ But the more she said it to herself, the less convincing it sounded.


	5. Wrong

## !~(*Chapter 5: Wrong*)~!

Lying in her bed, Max listened to Original Cindy’s slight snoring from the other room. Another look at the clock confirmed that she’d been trying to get to sleep for six hours now. Max kept her hands clasped over her stomach, feeling how flat it was, as if that proved anything.

Groaning, she rolled over and got out of bed, careful not to wake her friend. She ruffled through the pile of discarded clothes on a chair near her bed, and a cell phone fell out. Max picked it up, _Alec’s_ , she’d borrowed it from him the week before and had forgotten to give it back.

Max slipped out of the apartment, neglecting her jacket, and dialed a number nervously. _I’m sure he won’t mind me making a call,_ the thought of how much he would mind made her smile. “Hello?”

A male voice on the other end of the line answered, “Hello?”

Forcing herself to sound as normal as possible, Max sighed, “Dr. Carr?”

The voice sounded agitated now, “Yes?”

Relief flooded through her. _The less people that know, the better,_ “It’s Max.”

Dr. Carr exhaled loudly and tiredly, “Max? It’s very early.”

Feeling slightly chastised, Max stared intently at the glow in the cell phone, “Yeah, I know.”

Attempting to shift into doctor-mode, Dr. Carr’s voice took on the drowsiness of someone who had just woken up, “Can I help you?”

She brushed a couple stray pieces of hair back behind her ears, “Look, I need to get some tests.”

“Of course,” immediate concern, “are you hurt?”

Max attempted to regain some measure of calm, remembering that Dr. Carr couldn’t see her, or hear her pacing the halls. “No, I’m fine.”

Again, relief evident in his voice, “So it doesn’t have to be right now,” a pause and the shuffling of papers, “when can you come… I’ll see if I can fit you in.”

 _Time, there’s lots of time._ She started back towards the apartment. “Before work, maybe?”

A loud screech could be heard, presumably from Dr. Carr’s filing cabinet, “That would be fine.” More papers rustling, “Max, you’re sure everything’s all right?”

Max stopped; having figured the conversation would be over by now, “Can we talk about this at the office?”

Dr. Carr’s voice was still slightly raised in concern, but also in acceptance of not knowing. “Of course.”

“Thanks,” she didn’t give him a chance to say goodbye and just clicked the phone off.

Unable to believe that she had just done that, made the idea so real, Max quietly opened the door and slipped back inside. _I’m just going to prove this stupid theory wrong._

!~(*)~!

Alec reclined in his bed, watching the TV absently. He was wide-awake, still. It had finally occurred to him a couple hours ago, when he’d had the luxury to realize it, that he’d been a stupid idiot about this entire business. It had woken him up out of an almost sound sleep and pushed his mind into full activity. _Damn Matincore and their screwed up no sleep policy,_ he silently cursed.

Of course, there wasn’t anyone there to stop him from cursing out loud, in the middle of the night, like a complete lunatic.

Alec sighed, there was nothing good on TV, ever. “Guess people don’t have the money to pay stars millions of dollars to entertain us. They’d prefer to use it on assassins.”

This dreary thought considerably cheered Alec up, mainly because the rest of his thoughts had been centering around Max, and how she was going to blame him. “Why,” he berated for at least the tenth time that night, “did I have to actually listen to Logan’s call? Couldn’t have been a jackass like normal.”

He smirked to himself; Alec was sure Max would reinstate her search for more inventive names for him once she got over her denial. That would be after she kicked his ass.

Alec was successfully resigned to the inevitable. _Max is going to fucking kill me,_ his thoughts mocked him, _and I’m going to let her. How whipped is that?_

Of course, then there was the whole other issue of a baby; his brain hadn’t let him forget that for a moment. Not even when he was asleep. Dreams of Manticore and PsyOps had plagued him even before he woke up.

Turning off the TV, Alec reached over to his bedside table and pulled off a book he had actually bought earlier that day. Well, technically yesterday. Flipping through it absently, Alec couldn’t help but grin as his eye caught something. _If it’s a girl, I wonder if Maxie would let me name her Layla?_ He thought about it. _Yeah, Layla would be pretty._

Turning to the other part of the book, Alec took boy names deep into consideration, unconsciously speaking out loud, he wondered, “Maybe I should just let Max think of a name. She has named a fair amount of people,” he snorted, “what am I crazy? Max sucks with names.”

Alec sank back down into his bed. _Who am I kidding, thinking of names? This whole thing is wrong, it shouldn’t have happened. I’ll be lucky if Max even lets me see it._ But all he could think about was the fact that him and Max were having a baby. _Manticore can go to hell, it’ll be our baby._

In the meantime, all he could hope was that Max got over her case of stupidity soon. _What did she think she just went into heat for the fun of it?_ Alec punched a pillow angrily. _Or better yet, maybe she’ll just blame me because she was in heat and I couldn’t keep my hands off her. Not like either of us had a fucking choice._

!~(*)~!

The ninja slammed around the corner at breakneck speed, turning so sharply that it almost landed on its side. As the motorcycle skidded to a halt in the parking lot, only a millimeter away from the wall, Max stepped off.

Stretching her sore and overworked muscles, Max was once again reminded of certain activities with Alec several days before. Aside from being an entirely new type of soreness – most pain Max endured from fights, which had on occasion broken bones – normally she healed much quicker. _Fucking Manticore, can’t even be useful when I need to not be sore,_ she lamented. _Or at least not have the memories, in all their colorful detail._

Max opened the door and allowed it to slam shut with a bang, just daring the receptionist to question her. But the receptionist was on the phone and once she looked up, just waved Max to the back.

As she walked by, Max smirked teasingly, “What, I don’t get to wait around?”

The woman looked rightfully confused. Max just shrugged and continued on, trying to mask her nervousness.

Waiting for her was Dr. Carr, looking even more nervous and stressed then Max felt. “Max, good! I wasn’t sure what I’d need, or I would have had everything waiting for you,” he took a breath, “what type of tests were you thinking on?”

Max looked at the floor. _Transgenics do not blush; I do not blush! Not about… oh god!_ “A pregnancy test.”

Dr. Carr stopped shuffling though his cabinets and turned back to Max with confusion. “Couldn’t you just…” he gestured in what he figured was a general, not offensive, direction.

Shaking her head, Max explained, “Well, transgenic and all. Regular tests always have been crazy with my genes. Not that, I mean, I’ve never thought before…”

Sighing, Dr. Carr sat down and rolled his chair closer to Max, motioning her to hop up on the table. “Well, all right, then. What symptoms have you been having?”

Max rolled her eyes as she hopped on the table gracefully, she felt younger then she should have. “Well… none, really. I mean, I felt a little queasy the last couple days but I figured that was more nerves. It could be anything, right?”

Dr. Carr tapped his hands gently; he had never seen Max babble before, never seen the transgenic anything but collected. “Then, why are you here?”

Max sighed; this was the part she was going to kill Alec for. Straight up, if for nothing else, he was toast for this. “I went into heat, and then… so he thinks I’m pregnant. I said no, I mean it’s never happened before, but he’s going all on about Manticore and programming. Jackass.”

Sympathetically, Dr. Carr nodded; he liked Max over all, “All right. Let’s have a go at those tests and we’ll see if we can prove it one way or another… Err, how long ago?”

Max looked up, her eyes were wide as though she had been caught at something, “Umm… oh… a few days?”

Knowing that Max would never cease to amaze him, Dr. Carr shook his head as he turned back to his medical equipment. “You understand it might be a little early to tell.”

Trying to recollect herself, Max shrugged, “Just get it over with,” she muttered under her breath, “but I know he’s wrong.”


	6. Endurance

## !~(*Chapter 6: Endurance*)~!

Logan paced his apartment endlessly, thanks to the help of his exoskeleton. He had tried paging Max, but all he had got was a very sleepy Original Cindy claiming that she hadn’t seen her ‘boo.’

He was getting nervous. Logan needed to see Max, to tell her he loved her, that everything was okay. To get them back on track. _Besides,_ he reasoned, _Max said she pulled something at work a couple days ago, I should make sure she’s okay._

The realization that he hadn’t so much as talked to Max in a couple days – she hadn’t returned his pages – was a startling one to Logan. Memories of the beautiful transgenic waltzing into his apartment like she owned it, everyday, just because she wanted to, assaulted him.

Logan couldn’t help but wonder how things had gone so wrong. He understood that Max had been through things at Manticore, that it had brought up issues, and that she had changed. He was willing to work through that; what had changed was that she wasn’t.

At first, he had thought Asha had made Max nervous, that maybe she thought there was something between them, which was a lie. But more and more, Logan was feeling that the rift was his own humanity. After her time back in Manticore, which she refused to talk about, Max seemed to fault him for not being like her.

 _And Alec is like her,_ a nasty voice in Logan’s head accused, _or are you just forgetting what happened between them the other day?_

Logan shook his head, he wasn’t forgetting that, how could he? But this had happened before; he had seen Max in tears over heat-related guys before. _No tears this time,_ that voice reminded him.

But he was determined to bridge this new gap between them, despite heats, despite anything that Manticore had wedged between them. “That’s _it_!” Logan shouted triumphantly, ceasing his pacing, “Max and I need to sit over dinner and talk about Manticore. Like how she’s told me a little about her childhood; perfect!”

He frowned and commenced to pacing again “Now if only I could get in touch with her!”

!~(*)~!

Alec sat at his table, eating a rather hasty, not to mention early, breakfast. “Shit,” he moaned as he cast a glance at his watch, “I’m going to be late for work!”

Using his transgenic speed to finish his cereal quickly, Alec set the bowl into the sink and headed to the hallway.

Grabbing his coat and gloves quickly, Alec reached for his backpack. Another quick glance at his watched announced that he would be on time, “At least something’s going right,” he murmured.

Swinging open the door slowly, Alec looked up from his watch and felt his jaw drop in surprise, “Maxie? What’re you doing here?”

His fellow X5 pushed past him and into the living room. “You were right, okay?”

Alec let go of the door and was dimly aware of it shutting with a bang. Sure, he’d had time to think about this - didn’t make it any easier. “Wow.”

Max turned back around and looked angrily into Alec’s eyes, “What do we do?” It came out as an irate whisper.

Alec gently set his backpack back down on the ground and took several cautious steps towards Max. “I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you supposed to know everything?” Max shot heatedly, “Doesn’t the great Alec control the universe?!”

Though he was stunned to the point of speechlessness, Alec was not unprepared for her verbal attack, “Max,” he began gently, “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. You have to know that.”

Sinking down on a chair, Max placed her face in her hands. “I don’t know anything anymore! This wasn’t supposed to happen to me, Alec!”

Seeing Max so obviously crushed by this made Alec feel an overwhelming wave of sadness and pain. Unsure what to do, Alec stood where he was, recognizing that invading her space would quickly bring her to blows. “I’m sorry.”

Refusing to meet his eyes, Max half looked up from the mess of her hair in front of her face, “What?”

Leaning against the nearest wall, Alec rubbed at his temples. _At least she hasn’t hit me yet,_ “I’m sorry, Max.”

Max swung her hair out of her eyes with an over-exaggerated gesture, “Oh, hell, Alec. It’s not your fucking fault!” Having meant to blame him, not defend him, Max paused, also rubbing at her temples, “Look, would you call Normal and tell him we won’t be in today?”

Rushing out of the room, relieved at an excuse to breathe, Alec quickly dialed the phone.

When he returned, Max was sitting bent over in her chair, and Alec realized why she wouldn’t meet his eyes. _Max is crying!?_ Before he could stop himself, Alec had rushed over and was kneeling at Max’s side. Placing his hand on Max’s knee, he felt her jump and looked into her tear-filled eyes, “Max?”

“I’m being a fucking baby,” was the half-sobbed reply.

“No,” Alec shrugged, looking for a smile, “You’re carrying a baby.”

Smacking Alec lightly on the arm, Max rolled her eyes skyward, “Why I put up with you!” She looked down at her stomach, “It took two hours, but the results came in and I just didn’t want to believe it. You know?”

Alec nodded solemnly; he had hoped to be wrong, god he had hoped to be wrong. “I know.”

Biting her lip, Max stifled another sob; she was showing amazing endurance at not crying. _Why did I even come here first?_ “I guess we’re in this together now, huh?”

Unable to help the hopeful spark that crossed his eyes at her ‘ _we,_ ’ Alec agreed, “Yeah, I guess we are.”

Moaning, Max rocked forward into Alec’s waiting, if somewhat surprised, arms. “Oh god, Alec, how are we supposed to bring a child into this? White and Manticore, and-” she was cut off by her own choking tears. By her own fears.

Sighing, Alec held her shaking form as he rested his chin on the top of her head, “Shh, we’ll figure it out, Maxie,” _Please don’t be upset!_ He didn’t know what to do with her upset - Max was strong, like he was strong. _We’ll figure it out._

!~(*)~!

The last thing Original Cindy expected when she heard a knock on her door was Logan, but there he was. She opened the door and fixed him with an uneasy stare, “Original Cindy would like to know what you doing in her home?”

Logan winced slightly at Original Cindy’s type of speech but invited himself inside anyway, “Is Max here?”

Turning around after Logan pushed past her, so she could still watch him, Original Cindy left the door wide open - an invitation to leave. “No.”

Noticing the woman’s discomfort, Logan came slightly forward before stopping; he didn’t want to invade her space. On a certain level, Logan liked Original Cindy - she was a good person. “Do you know where she’s gone?”

Original Cindy sighed, it wasn’t that she was unsympathetic to Logan’s plight; it sucked. But her boo was her priority, Logan adding stress and pressure to the mess was the last thing Max needed. And it was Original Cindy’s job to keep Max from getting hurt because no matter how much Max protested that she could look out for herself, Original Cindy knew better. “Look, Logan, now ain’t a good time. Original Cindy’ll tell Max to call you.”

When Original Cindy moved out of the path of the door, Logan took that as his cue to leave. With a slight groan, he resorted to almost begging, “Please, Original Cindy, I need to talk to Max. Tell her I was here.”

Shaking her head as he slowly moved out the door, Original Cindy said, “OC’ll do what she can.”

Logan nodded, seemingly accepting that this was as good of a response as he could hope to receive, and didn’t turn back when the door shut. _I wonder why Max’s friends never like me?_

She just kept shaking her head sadly, remembering how excited Max had been about Logan, Once Upon A Time. Turning towards the kitchen to make some coffee, Original Cindy muttered, “My boo’s in some messed up shit.”

As Original Cindy put the coffee pot on the burner she crossed her well-manicured fingers behind her back and prayed for endurance, for her boo, for Alec, for Logan, and for the strength she would need to straighten them all out properly.


	7. Discourse

## !~(*Chapter 7: Discourse*)~!

Max looked down at her feet, her somewhat jovial mood lessoned by a new realization, “Oh, god, I’m gonna have to tell Logan!”

Alec couldn’t help but grin; Max was leaning against him and they were curled up on his couch, talking, actually talking. “Let’s go out!”

Looking up at the grinning transgenic, a startled Max asked, “What, like, on a date? Have you finally suffered one punch to the head too many?!”

Jumping up, Alec chuckled, toppling Max over in the process. “Not a date. Let’s just get out of here, have some fun. We could go to Crash and hang out with some friends.”

“You know,” Max paused, already mentally kicking herself for saying anything but determined to forge ahead. “Logan and I never went out on a date, not really.”

And Alec stopped half way to the door; this was a little piece of information he hadn’t known. “So, Crash it is?!”

With a mumbled groan of protest, Max got up, “Alec, I look like shit! What fun is Crash going to be?”

Rolling his eyes in an exaggerated gesture of annoyance, Alec grabbed Max’s arm and pulled her with him, out the door, acting overly excited. “C’mon, Maxie, it’ll all be fun and stuff! “

Giving Alec a weird look, Max turned her head towards the dreary apartment ceiling, “Lord, do you honestly think I should be going anywhere with this lunatic?”

Without a word, Alec continued to drag Max out of the apartment, until they had reached her bike. He released her hands and leaned against the bike, one eyebrow raised and his hand over his heart, “Oww, that wounded me.” He sighed, “Well, if it’ll make you feel safer, you can drive instead of the lunatic!”

Pulling at a piece of hair for inspection, Max looked mournfully back at the apartment, “I still look like shit, no matter how much you distract me.”

Alec sighed, “Oh, for god's sake, Max, get on the damn bike!” To punctuate his somewhat teasing words, Alec wrapped his hands around Max’s waist, and lifted her onto the bike gently.

As Alec climbed on the bike behind her, hands still around her waist, Max was silent for a moment. She refused to examine why she had to take a second and remind herself to breathe, or why a good comeback took longer to think of than it should have. “God, Alec, how you talk me into this stuff, I’ll never know.”

Starting the bike with a whirl, Max felt all her worries go out the window; she loved her bike, “I hope you like to go fast!”

Alec wrapped his arms more securely around Max’s waist, pressing his body closer to hers as he took the opportunity to whisper back, “Talked you into this! You’d think we were going to rob the place, I’m just proposing some innocent fun.”

Snorting as she kicked the bike off and they started speeding down the highway, Max turned back towards Alec and said, “With you, nothing is innocent!”

However, Alec had a panicked expression on his face, and his hands dug into her waist delightfully, “Shit, Max, going fast is one thing, but _watch the road_!”

Max laughed as she turned back around and pulled the bike up into a wheelie.

!~(*)~!

Snapping her long fingernails, recently painted neon blue, near Sketchy’s face, Original Cindy warned, “Boy, you better not give Max any shit, my boo ain’t feeling good, and OC ain’t saving your skinny white-boy ass from her wrath.”

In a placating gesture, Sketchy put his hands palm up towards his friend while simultaneously shrinking back in his chair to avoid those clicking nails. “Whoa, chill out, OC, I’ll be nice to Max.”

“OC means it, Sketchy,” however she did withdraw her hand in favor of sipping her beer and reclining so that she could check out the hot girls at the bar. “You better not let OC catch you telling my boo your twisted little fantasies.”

Pouting, Sketchy thought long and hard on the merits of pissing his volatile friends off. _Why is it that all my friends ever do is threaten me? I need a guy’s opinion, hope Alec gets here soon._ Doing a quick check to make sure that Max was nowhere in the vicinity, Sketchy couldn’t help but tease, “So you mean I can’t tell her about this dream I had where you two were having this mud-wrestling contest and…”

However, Original Cindy had just spotted a very beautiful blonde in a short red skirt checking her out, and promptly stopped listening to Sketchy’s babbling. “Hey, Sketchy, see that blonde over there? OC is going to check her out, if all goes right we’ll give you something to use in your weird lesbian wet dreams. You know what’s good for you, stay out OC’s way.”

Sketchy shrugged indifference, “What, me complain? Pfft,” draining the last of the pitcher into his glass, he held out the now empty pitcher to Original Cindy. “Since you’re up, next round’s on you.”

Swiping the pitcher out of Sketchy’s hand, Original Cindy stalked towards the bar and her would-be-honey, muttering, “No good, mooching, filthy-minded boy is gonna get his someday, lord, just let OC be there to see it.”

Setting the pitcher down next to the blonde in question, Original Cindy signaled another pitcher from the bartender and turned to the other woman, who spoke before Original Cindy had a chance. “You have a very odd friend,” was the quiet half-question.

Laughing, Original Cindy shook her head violently, “Friend is too strong a word. We work together, ‘nough said. I’m Original Cindy, you?”

“Well, Original Cindy, I’m Rain. But I’m not sure if we could date, I don’t like getting dirty and that doesn’t fit with your work buddy’s fantasies,” her voice was light to indicate that she was teasing and almost laughing.

Blushing, Original Cindy looked down and the recently refilled pitcher of beer, unsure how to answer. Finally she regained enough confidence to mutter, “You heard Sketchy? Him and OC was just kidding. Besides, anything would work with that boy’s fantasies.”

Rain smiled almost shyly, which contrasted her previous statements but fit in well with her personality, “In that case, assuming I can tell him off for lesbian stereotyping, I would love to get to know you.”

Before Original Cindy could respond that she was very pro that idea, there was the seemingly regular but exceedingly interesting commotion of her best friend entering, Alec in tow. The two were laughing about something and kept pushing each other slightly, Max finally going so far as to drag Alec by his ear down two steps. Letting go, she brightly announced, “Hey OC, Sketchy, what’s up?”

Meanwhile, Alec was rubbing his ear and paused to stick his tongue out at Max sullenly, which she ignored in favor of plopping down in the chair across from Sketchy. When Alec came over and sat down next to his somewhat moronic friend, Sketchy nodded slowly, “Good to see you man. Hey, Max, grab a beer, it’s on OC,” he motioned to their returning friend.

Original Cindy had left Rain the minute she saw Max and Alec enter, only bothering to mutter a half, “Just a minute,” before heading straight towards the table her friends occupied.

She set down the pitcher of beer, trying to figure out exactly how to phrase her questions and get back to Rain as soon as possible. Sketchy immediately grabbed the pitcher and poured it into four glasses, passing them out. “Told you, OC’s buying.”

Alec and Original Cindy shared a brief moment of understanding as they both stopped from simultaneously reaching across the table, slapping Sketchy, and grabbing the beer away from Max. The transgenic thought of an excuse quicker though and grabbed Max’s drink, announcing, “Too slow!” and downing it in one gulp.

Reaching out as if to smack Sketchy, Original Cindy stopped short and admonished him, “Boy you know Max and OC gotta be up early for work tomorrow. What, you trying to make us late?”

Swiping at Alec only lightly, Max used a falsely irritated tone with him as Alec held her glass out of her reach, “You ass!”

While Sketchy was totally oblivious, Original Cindy noticed that instead of wincing as though he had been hit hard, Alec winked and Max returned it. Of course at that point, Rain decided she’d waited long enough, sashaying over and asking sweetly, “You all don’t mind if I join you, right?”

Max, Sketchy, and Alec looked from Rain to Original Cindy, who nodded and introduced, “Guys this is Rain. Rain, these here are OC’s girls, Sketchy, Alec, and Max,” she gestured to each one in turn.

Alec made a face at being called a girl, but let it slide when Max giggled slightly, glad that she was smiling. Sketchy was too absorbed in his lesbian mud-wrestling fantasies to even notice being called a girl. Carefully, everyone nodded, “Hey, Rain,” and Rain sat down between Original Cindy and Max. The rest of the evening passed without undue incident.

!~(*)~!

The sound of a key turning in the lock preceded Max’s entrance into her utterly black apartment. She came inside slowly and didn’t bother to flick on the lights; she could see perfectly in the dark.

It had taken Max the better part of a half hour trying to convince Alec to let her go home alone, and she had only succeeded on the pretense of being tired. Max was tired, and she had a top couple guesses on why her transgenic stamina was failing her after only a few hours and nothing to drink. Actually, she had one singular, big guess.

Halfway through taking off her coat, Max was startled by the phone ringing. _Must be OC checking in on me like she said._ Admitting that her friend needed to work on her timing, nonetheless Max hurried to the phone. “Hey boo, you staying at Rain’s tonight after all?”

The voice on the other end of the phone was startled sounding and definitely not the X5’s roommate. “Max?”

Max stopped short in her buoyant monologue and suppressed a groan. She had purposefully not answered her phone for the last couple of days just so that she wouldn’t have to deal with him, although the amount of messages he had left was bordering on really creepy. Forcing a not sick-to-her-stomach-nervous tone to her voice, Max replied, “Hi, Logan.”

“Did you get my messages,” his voice was bordering on whining. Logan was starting to wonder why she hadn’t answered her phone at all, had she been sick or just too busy for him?

Chewing on her lip slightly, Max nodded to herself, “Yeah,” she could almost feel the pause stretching on but she definitely didn’t want to stay on that subject. “Was there something you wanted, Logan?”

There was a rustling of papers and she could hear him typing, at his computer as usual. Finally Logan seemed to have calmed himself and his voice returned to its normal, cheery if slightly depressed, tone. “Yes, actually, Max. I was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner?”

Moving towards the kitchen, Max hopped up on the table and did a mental survey of the cupboards, reminded that she was indeed hungry. “Tonight?”

The typing thankfully stopped, it always bothered Max but tonight it was especially grating on her eardrums, she didn’t want any more noise after Crash. “Yeah, I made lasagna and just picked up one of my favorite bottles of wine, from before the millennium.”

Having already decided to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a very large glass of milk, Max still paused before turning Logan down, even though the thought of wine was making her stomach queasier then it already was. _We haven’t really seen each other all week…_ Sighing, Max tried to sound firm but not mean, “Sorry, Logan, I was just about to go to bed, really tired, you know? How about I stop by after work tomorrow?”

“Fine, Max, tomorrow then,” Logan tried very hard to keep the disappointment out of his voice as he looked at the table laden with expensive foods he had thought Max might like to try.

 _Well, you’ve set a date now, you’ll have to tell him then. Idiot!_ Lamenting the conversation she knew would soon happen, Max hastily said goodbye. She was still tired and wanted a snack then bed, “Okay, gotta jet. Bye, Logan,” she didn’t wait for his reply before hanging up.


	8. Problems

## !~(*Chapter 8: Problems*)~!

It was the sound of someone up and about and very stealthily making coffee, that first woke Original Cindy. She had a moment of confusion, fully expecting the transgenic to come in, make some snarky remark about how long she’d been up, and offer coffee.

It was at that point in which Original Cindy noticed that she was not in her own bed, not in her room, and most certainly not in her apartment. The night before came back to her quickly and she smiled, this was Rain’s apartment, not hers.

Quickly and quietly getting out of bed, Original Cindy strode towards the doorway and rubbed at her sleepy eyes, calling out, “Morning, Rain.”

The other woman hopped off of the counter she was sitting upon, in a movement that again reminded Original Cindy of her roommate, and turned towards the stove, where breakfast was cooking, with a little wave. “Hey, you sleep well?”

However, Original Cindy was standing stunned and speechless as she stared at her new girlfriend. The blonde hair of the other woman had flown slightly to the side when she had jumped off the table, revealing something that had most certainly not been there the night before. “Boo, what’s that on your neck?”

Rain spun around quickly, hand going up to pull her hair over the back of her neck and her large, pale, gray eyes locked on Original Cindy’s brown ones. Slowly, shakily, Rain exhaled, and forced a smile to her face, “Oh, that… it’s just a tattoo I have, you know, wild teenage years.”

“Can I see?” At Rain’s slightly tense nod, Original Cindy walked forward briskly and placed one hand on Rain’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her, brushing her hair out of the way with the other, and tracing the markings. “Lord, boo, that’s a barcode, isn’t it?”

Safely turned the other way from Original Cindy’s concerned gaze, Rain wondered how the barcode could have grown back so quickly. Usually she had at least three days before it came back. Her eye caught the calendar on her wall. _Damn it, this is day three! How could I have lost track of time like that?_ “Uh, yeah, it’s a barcode. Kind of creepy, I know, I’ve been thinking of having it removed.”

Lightly, Original Cindy traced the black lines on Rain’s pale neck. She shook her head slightly at the other woman’s comment, but not enough to be noticed. So far Original Cindy had really liked the slightly tragic looking but beautiful blonde, and she had no intention of making her even more nervous. “You remember OC’s friend Max?”

“Yeah,” Rain replied promptly, glad at the change of subject. She let out a little sigh of relief when Original Cindy let go of her hair and moved around to face her; she wanted the barcode subject dropped.

Original Cindy knew that when delivering potentially shocking news, it was always best to be face to face with someone, so that they couldn’t mistake your meaning when they looked into your eyes. So she was certainly looking into Rain’s eyes when she said, “Well, Max has a barcode on the back of her neck, actually, so does my other friend, Alec. Now Original Cindy was under a certain impression about these 'tattoos,' and what they meant, but if you tell me again that this was some teenage riot act, Original Cindy's not gonna question that.”

Her already large gray eyes widened to huge proportions, making her look like a very startled owl of some sort. All Rain could see in her lover’s eyes was understanding, not judgment, but she was still worried. As Original Cindy herself had pointed out, there was the possibility of getting an actual tattoo of a barcode. She wanted to be clear, “Maybe a barcode on my body wasn’t exactly my idea.”

It was obvious to Original Cindy that should she not come out and say about X5’s and transgenics at exactly this moment, not only would Rain still have a cover story prepared, but Original Cindy would never see her again. Taking a large breath, Original Cindy prepared to say her piece. “Well, not your idea, boo, usually means creepy-as-hell government program that is hunting your ass down on a regular basis because you’ve escaped from their fucked up system. Sound about right?”

“You’re okay with this,” Rain paused, the smell of burning eggs assaulting her senses and causing her to turn away so that she could shut off the stove. It also gave her a good excuse to recoup, “It’s all so dangerous.”

Spinning Rain around, Original Cindy hugged her girlfriend tightly and whispered lightly into her ear, “Look, my best friend and her boy are X5’s, besides, Original Cindy could use a little danger, and you’ll fit right in. Just so long as we get that heat bitch under control because I don’t want you going all straight-girl on me twice a year.”

Rain pulled back slightly, just to reassure herself that Original Cindy was kidding for the most part, and was telling the truth about still wanting her around. Once she was sure, she grinned and promptly teased back, “Well, now you’ll never get rid of me.”

“Good,” was all the reply that was needed because suddenly X5’s, heats, burnt eggs, and breakfast were the last things from Rain and Original Cindy’s minds.

!~(*)~!

The smell of food assaulted Max well before she even walked into Logan’s apartment. Certain food smells were starting to make her feel either unbelievably hungry or nauseous. Unfortunately, Logan appeared to be cooking some sort of fish and her shark DNA was rebelling even as the cat side of her licked its lips. Sometimes, her genetic cocktail really sucked.

All this wasn’t helping the nerves Max already had over this dinner; she knew she’d have to tell Logan what was going on tonight. She took a deep breath and walked into the open door of the penthouse, “Hey, Logan. You finally caught me for dinner.”

Walking in from the kitchen with the customary noises associated with his exoskeleton, Logan spotted Max hovering at the door and motioned her into the living room. “Max, dinner’s not quite ready yet, so I thought we could wait in the living room.” _And not have a repeat of our cooking incident last time._

Nodding, Max followed him to the correct room and sat down on the couch, so that she was across from him. There was no chance of her making it through dinner without gagging, which would surely result in her telling Logan the truth. _Better get it over with first, rather than last._ “Logan, I have some news. Important news.”

Having successfully seated himself as close to Max as he dared, Logan looked up at that. Max had definitely seemed more nervous than usual around him lately, but there was something about her tone that made him hope for the best. _Please, please, please be rid of the virus!_ “Yes?”

Max clutched her hands over her stomach protectively but as casually as she could. For the last few weeks, Logan had put up with her avoidance of him with happy phone messages. He had even once muttered something about ‘post traumatic stress syndrome’ and reassured her that he loved her and they would get through this. She couldn’t understand how he could be so calm, _I’m not calm, how can he be!?_ “I’m pregnant.” _Quick, there I did it, okay, open eyes, is he going to flip out?_

It took a few seconds for what she had said to fix itself into Logan’s brain - he had already been thinking of all the things they could do once that damn virus was eliminated. His eyes widened as what she had said finally registered, _WHAT?!_ “Oh.”

Fiddling with her jacket nervously, Max looked down, away from those eyes that were looking at her in such hurt. She wanted to scream, _it’s not my fault, I didn’t ask for heats or this!_ But she didn’t. “I just found out.” Max paused, trying to find something to say, “Something to do with Manticore.”

He considered this for a minute, Max didn’t seem sad or about to cry, she wasn’t blaming Alec, but there was Manticore, and she didn’t seem bounce-on-the-walls happy either. Logan took a really deep breath, _Inhale, count to ten, exhale._ “Okay.”

Max stopped mid-way through her half planned – half spur of the moment – speech. She had a whole little plan worked out about how she wasn’t sure what was going on yet, and she understood if he was angry so maybe they shouldn’t visit anymore, but… “Okay?”

Logan reached out with his heavily gloved hands and held her hands firmly in them, he leaned forward so that they were much too close for Max’s comfort level, and moved her hands from her lap to mid-air, trapped in his. “Max, we’ll get through this. Together we can get through anything.”

This startled her significantly, more so than anything else he had said so far. _Together we can get through anything, did he even hear what I just said?_ Slowly, carefully, she enunciated, “Logan. I’m pregnant. With Alec’s baby.” It was probably as important to say this to Logan as to herself.

Releasing Max’s hands, Logan rubbed his tired temples. _She had to say it again, didn’t she. I got this the first time - not like it could be my baby._ Unfortunately he didn’t give himself enough time to think of something much nicer to say. “I know that Max, it’s not like it could be my baby, and I’d like to think you haven’t gone gallivanting around with anyone else. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise, I doubt the virus would be passed down to your child, and it’ll give us more time to research…”

Disbelief clouded Max’s brain, but something was becoming startlingly clear to her in Logan’s drawn out speeches. She couldn’t believe he could even be suggesting what she was pretty damn sure he was suggesting. “Let me get this straight. You want to raise this baby, with me. Alec’s child.”

“Do you have to keep bringing him into this?” Logan demanded harshly, he could feel a headache coming on and Max was consistently bringing in a fact he very much wanted to ignore. Calming himself, he added, “It doesn’t matter who the father is, this is your child and you were in heat. I love you, of course I’d want to raise your child with you.”

 _Oh god,_ suddenly all the smells from the kitchen came crashing down on her senses, including the new smell of charred fish, it was disgusting and paired with the things Logan was saying… _I can’t believe he could even think something like that._ “I can’t talk to you about this, not now. I don’t even know what I’m going to do about all this but… if I keep it… it does matter that Alec’s the father; I won’t just take away his kid. And yes this is Manticore’s fault, but so is my entire life so it doesn’t… I have to go now.”

Logan tried to get up and follow Max during her little speech, but she was moving much too fast for him and he couldn’t really touch her even if he did catch her. By the time she had said ‘I have to go now,’ Max was already out the door and down the hall. Logan stood at his open doorway and realized that dinner was again ruined. “Damn it,” he punched his fist against a wall, “damn it, Max.”

!~(*)~!

“Dude, I so do not get you,” Sketchy droned mournfully, staring at the buxom redhead who was currently staring daggers at their table from the safety of her group of equally endowed friends.

Rolling his eyes, Alec completely ignored the angry curses he could still hear being thrown his way, and turned towards his friend. “How so?”

This was perhaps the wrong comment to make, for Sketchy actually sat up straight and started gesturing wildly with his arms to illustrate his points. “Lesson the first, my man, you do not initiate break up proceedings with someone as hot as Roxanne, especially when you work together, especially in public, especially in a way such that ruins any chance I may have with her or any of her friends.”

“Sketchy,” Alec began slowly, trying to work this idea into his friend’s brain, even though he knew that Sketchy’s mind actually only had one track. Girls. There was nothing else the other man thought of, or that came before them, he’d sell his friends right up stream for a hot girl, especially if there was a chance of lesbian action. “Sketchy, Roxanne and I have been over for weeks now, if you can ever have considered us together, I just had to remind her of that. And, please, feel free to try your chances.”

Simply shaking his head, Sketchy took a long slug of his beer and lamented, “I’m never going to teach you anything about women, am I?” He managed to both make this sound like a bad thing and stay one hundred percent serious at the same time.

Shrugging, Alec took a drink from his own beer and left it at that. He wasn’t about to explain to Sketchy that Roxanne had been a fling who hadn’t gotten the hint, or that there weren’t going to be any flings in his near future that he could see and he intended to keep it that way. “I’m sorry my singleness offends you.”

Roxanne had stopped slinging curse words their way and was now not so subtly flirting with some other guy and yet kept checking back with frustration to find Alec completely ignoring her. Noticing this, Sketchy pushed his chair back and stood up, “You are hopeless, Alec. In the meantime, I’m going to go _announce_ my singleness to her friends.”

Clapping Sketchy on the back as he passed by, Alec encouraged this course of action mainly because it got Sketchy to leave him alone and also because any attempts Sketchy made with women were usually hilarious. “You go do that, good luck.”

As Sketchy went off to do his thing, Alec thought about Roxanne and many of the other women he had casually dated at Jam Pony. He hadn’t been exceptionally interested in any of them and that, he had been told by Original Cindy, was the secret to his failures in relationships.

This didn’t particularly bother him, but some of those women he worked with were still kind of angry and he couldn’t even imagine what things would be like when it eventually came out that he was going to be Mr. Dad. Of course, that thought scared him more than any pissed off co-workers did, but he wondered if this would irritate Max. “Of course it’ll irritate her, everything pisses Max off.”

Laughing to himself, Alec decided to just ignore it for the time being. He needed to talk to Max again about things and if one of those things was angry exes, well, he was sure Max had a couple, Rafe and Logan in particular, who were going to jump on that bandwagon.

Motioning to Sketchy, he finished his beer and waited for his friend to saunter back over and complain about having been interrupted in the middle of making his move with five girls at the same time. “Yo, man, what’s going on? I was just getting into it with those lovely ladies - two are sisters!”

Not even wanting to ask what Sketchy was thinking along those lines, Alec grabbed his coat and stood up, “I’m going to head home, I’ve got some things to do. You get back to those sisters, okay?”

Nodding vigorously, Sketchy was already heading in the opposite direction from Alec, at a fairly fast speed. “Yep, sounds good, Alec. See you at work…” Almost out the door, Alec was still able to hear Sketchy reach his destination, “Ladies, ladies, there’s no need to worry, I’m back in one piece and all yours… no, please, fighting is encouraged.”

Shaking his head in amusement at his friend’s antics, Alec walked out of Crash and headed home to try to sort out what he was going to say the next time he saw Max. Or maybe he would just go for a ride on his motorcycle and worry about that later, “Yeah, that sounds like the plan.”


	9. Harder

## !~(*Chapter 9: Harder*)~!

White circled around the person in front of him in a feral pattern. He was angry and had no qualms in showing it. Taking a deep breath that did little to calm him, White asked, “Did I or did I not explain the mission to you?”

Nodding numbly, the being tried hard to keep any signs of emotion or subordination off of their face, and succeeded rather well. “Yes, sir, you did, sir.”

“And didn’t the mission include eliminating the target at the assigned spot, by now?”

Again nodding in the affirmative, not knowing what else to do, the person agreed in what they hoped was a submissive voice. “Yes, sir.”

Stopping right in front of his intended victim, White flexed his arms the wrong direction and shook his head sadly. “You’ve failed me, I don’t like failure.” He let the words sink in with his most evil glare, just to watch the individual squirm. “However, given the nature of our… agreement…” he grinned, “I’m willing to give you another chance. That is, if you think you can achieve the mission?”

Frantically, the person nodded, running a hand through their hair nervously. “Yes, sir,” taking a deep breath to steel themselves against either an attack or later guilt, the being continued, “nothing will prevent me from the mission, sir.”

Nodding, White waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, “Very well, you have a week.” When the person did not so much as move, his mouth twitched, and he added. “Dismissed, leave. Now.”

Hurriedly offering the well-known salute and muttering a brief message underneath their breath, the being quickly left. However, they did back out, rightfully wary that White might still try to injure them bodily.

“Imbeciles!” White muttered as soon as the person had left, uncaring of whether it was heard or not, “I am surrounded by idiots who are incapable of doing their assigned _jobs_!”

He paced for a moment, pondering the problem that he was now faced with. It had been obvious that something had been troubling his visitor, even more so than the fact that the intended target was still alive. White didn’t pick just any assassin for work like this; he picked the best, and made sure that they were properly motivated. “So, then, why is the target still alive!?”

Frustrated, but with nobody to take it out on, White could only hope that the assassin would do their job, and that his spies would find out what had stopped completion of the murder the first time. “Ahh, well, there’s always a second try. And this one won’t fail.”

!~(*)~!

“Damn it, why do my best plans never work?”

Sighing, the woman let out a delicate yawn, covered by her hand, and tried not to look bored. She hadn’t come here to listen to moaning, she’d come to try to talk things through. “Look, maybe it’s just the other person. Your plan sounded fine to me.” _Sounded pretty damn nice, actually._

Putting his head in his hands, the man sunk down farther on the couch and sighed deeply, looking for all the world like he was crying. But that wouldn’t have made very much sense. “Ugh, she wasn’t supposed to get mad, and she wasn’t supposed to be able to just leave!”

The blonde shook her hair out, eyes fixed on her sullen companion while her mind tried to work out ways to cheer him up. _Ways that won’t involve me being kicked out._ “Hey, it doesn’t sound like it was anything you did. You were trying to do the right thing, she just couldn’t think about anyone but herself, not even for a minute.”

Straightening back up, he considered this idea. _She’s right…_ Cleaning his glasses slightly, and using that as a good excuse to make sure that no silly tears had managed to show up. _Damn dust, always flying into my eyes at just the wrong moments._ “It’s too late now, I suppose, she made the wrong choice, and now she has to face it and suffer for it.”

“Okay,” moving forward so that she could touch her partner, the woman brushed her hand over his and smiled brightly, “enough about her. She fucked up, her deal, good riddance. Logan, you need to get past this.”

Laughing a bitter, cracked laugh, Logan looked up and straight into the eyes of the woman next to him. Gesturing around the room in a wide arc, he asked, “Move on to what? My life is Eyes Only, and I can’t even pull that off properly without her help. She was the only one who understood what this was like, that I have to help people.”

Tilting her head to the side slightly, the woman regarded this statement and possible answers for it. It was obvious to her how hung up Logan was on the other woman, but this recent fight might have been enough for him to break free of the cycle. She hated to see him being used for his contacts and abilities, and she was willing to give him the extra push that he needed to let go and move on. “I understand. Hell, I think my life is just about as messed up.”

Logan looked at her, and for the first time he didn’t see pain, didn’t see reminders of everything else that was hurting him. All he saw was the person in front of him, someone who could be his friend. “It’s times like this, when I can’t help someone close to me, that it all seems so useless.”

“I know it does, but hell, Logan,” she paused, trying to think of the words that always spun around in her head around this man. “You’re a modern-day superman, a fucking hero for everyone here.”

Smiling slightly at that, Logan couldn’t help but relate the look in her eyes to another’s. _She always used to look at me like that, like I was some sort of god. Not anymore._ “I just do what I can,” he took a breath, trying to be modest. “Thanks, Asha, I need a friend while Max sorts herself out, I just have to give her some time.”

Nodding slightly, Asha pulled back a little, releasing his hand in what she hoped wasn’t too abrupt of a manner. “Yeah, no problem, that’s what…” _Friend, you’re a friend. A girl friend, yes, as in two words, as in a friend that just happens to be female. That’s okay._ “friends… are for.”

Getting up with a slight squeal from his exoskeleton, Logan moved to his computer and sat down, pulling up some files. “Again, thanks.” finding the one he was looking for, he pointed out, “you wouldn’t believe some of the things governments have been trying this month. I was wondering if you wanted to go over it?” Not waiting for a response, he continued, “There’s some stuff in the refrigerator that you can heat up if you’re hungry - it might take a while.”

Standing quickly, Asha smiled as best as she could and headed past Logan and into the kitchen to scrounge for something for them to eat. _Knowing Logan it will take a long time to go over all this stuff. And that dinner he made sounded so nice and romantic… Oh well, off to work._

!~(*)~!

The motorcycle in his yard was Alec’s first tip-off that someone else was there. Once he noticed that the lights were on in his apartment, and that the bike was a Ninja, he knew who it was perfectly.

Parking his own bike, Alec got off, striding up the stairs and into his apartment. Sure enough, the door was open and Max was lounging on his couch, flipping through some book that had apparently been in the apartment. “Hey,” he said softly.

Nodding in acknowledgement that she had heard both his entrance and his hello, Max didn’t look up from the book, but did say, “It’s occurred to me that we never did properly get to talk. And since I promised you we would, and I don’t break promises, I thought we could.”

Alec noted the tone of her voice warily. It was a cross of teasing and cold, leaving him guessing as to what he had done to make her mad this time. _Maybe this is the ass kicking part of the story._ “Yeah, I guess. Uh, you want something… I have-”

Cutting him off smoothly, Max reached behind her and mock-saluted him with a cup of milk that she had already grabbed. Looking up with twinkling eyes, Max regarded Alec carefully. _He’s fucking nervous. Guess better late than never._ “I talked to Logan today, he said…” her voice faltered for a moment before she regained control, “well, I mean, we need to start making plans, right?”

Shutting the door behind him, Alec came into his apartment fully, coming to sit on the couch across from the one that Max was reclining on. _Plans… what is she thinking of planning?_ “Yeah. I hadn’t really thought anything out, figured you’d want to make the first suggestions.”

Noticing the way Alec was looking around, yet another sign that he was nervous, Max could almost feel her mood shifting, as she stood and blurred over to him. Standing over him, she shook her head, slight anger tinged to her voice, “Oh you’ve thought it out all right. What, you want me to move in here, kick my feet up, do shit-all and focus on having a baby for the next nine months?”

He could tell that she was angry, probably at the idea, and probably at him. Staring right into those troubled chocolate eyes, Alec sighed and decided to tell the truth anyway. _She’d know if I was lying, and it can’t hurt now._ “You don’t have to make it sound so fucking stupid, but yeah. I wouldn’t want you running off on some Eyes Only mission and getting yourself hurt. Or killed. Or our…” He couldn’t quite say it properly, like this, talking.

The defenseless, almost fearful look in his eyes threw her off guard. It wasn’t her that Alec was afraid of, Max knew that, it was this _thing_ growing inside of her. Hell, even thinking about it scared the shit out of her. Just the fact that he could be rational, reasonable and afraid pissed her off. “I haven’t even said I was going to keep it yet,” she knew it was mean before it came out, but there it was and she couldn’t just take it back.

Suddenly Alec’s body went stiff as a board. He straightened up and simultaneously leaned backwards in order to move as far away from her as he could. _She’s hurt, I fucking get that, doesn’t mean she gets to take it out on me!_ “No, you haven’t. I think maybe we’ve said all that we can right now, feel free to let me know when you decide. No rush, it’s not like it affects my life at all or means anything to me.”

Max stood there for a second before she realized that he was most certainly waiting for her to move so that if she wouldn’t leave, he could. _Oh my god, that is exactly what I was so pissed that Logan could suggest, and… SHIT._ “Alec, shit, wait a second. I didn’t mean it like that… I know that this changes things for both of us…”

Pushing her back as gently as he could, considering how angry he was, Alec stood and moved around the other transgenic. “Tell me you’ve already decided to keep it…” Her confused and downcast look was all that he needed to see. “Right. Well, just try to let me know when you grow up and figure things out, because I’m sick of being the mature one. I don’t like the role.”

Without waiting for her to leave, Alec turned and opened the door, striding out of it quickly. As he went, Alec called back, “You know what, I’ll leave, I need to get some fresh air.”

Staring at the open and empty doorway, Max felt an awful lot like breaking down into tears. Blaming it on hormones, she tried to figure out what had happened. _I acted like a total bitch, remember._ She tilted her head to the side and wondered if Alec was okay. _Of course he’s okay, Alec’s always okay._ A nasty part of her brain questioned this theory, especially with the way he had looked at her… _Right?_


	10. Think

## !~(*Chapter 10: Think*)~!

“Great, rain, matches my mood,” he had been walking so long that he was surprised he hadn’t come across sector police. Actually, he knew why he hadn’t come across them, he’d simply been pacing a long expanse of streets, and kept going back to exactly the place he didn’t want to.

 _It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just… well, yeah, I don’t want to._ Under no circumstances was Alec feeling up to dealing with Max again tonight. And it wasn’t even that he was afraid of what she would say, he was more afraid of what he would do if she said anything else.

The transgenic had an extraordinary amount of control over himself, but her comments earlier in the evening had gotten to him. A lot more than he really wanted to admit, “Damnit, I thought we were getting somewhere beyond that kind of hurtful bullshit.”

Alec ignored the few pedestrians sharing the dank streets with him, he didn’t care that they were staring at his little outburst. They wanted to make an issue of it; he was more than sure that he could teach them some manners.

Shaking his head, he tried to rid himself of such violent thoughts. _Damnit, I’m a good guy now, can’t just beat up people who piss me off; gotta remember that._ Unfortunately his sarcastic comment just didn’t pack the same effect inside of his own head.

“Besides,” he sighed, making sure to keep his little speeches to himself slightly quieter, “who am I kidding? It’s not like I have any idea what I’m supposed to be doing right now. Aside from not flipping out - that would probably be a good point.”

Everything about him and Max, this possible baby, just showed how out of his depth and out of control of the situation he was. Alec wasn’t used to being out of control; Manticore had been big on control of every little aspect of your life. Consequently, Alec was used to things being planned, set, controlled so that he knew what to expect from himself and from everyone around him.

This lack of control was scaring the shit out of him. Much more than things like PsyOps had ever scared him, because even then he knew that he’d get out eventually. This… it just seemed like never-ending insanity, with no get out of jail date.

Plus, it bugged him that all this was backtracking him into thoughts about Manticore, he’d been working past that. “Figured I was done with all that Manticore shit,” this time there was nobody present to stop and stare at him.

Alec felt like he’d been functioning okay in the outside world, he’d even been enjoying the spontaneity of things, being able to do what _he_ wanted instead of what everyone else had designated. _Leave it to Max to make me backtrack into a crazed transgenic._

Yet, he didn’t really blame Max, didn’t see how he could. The fact was she’d helped him into a world that he probably never would have found his own way into, and a world he liked better than the alternatives. A lot better.

“Good Lord, you almost gave OC a heart attack, sneaking up on her like that!” a voice boomed out, typically loud and happy.

Alec looked up to realize that he’d rounded a corner and almost run smack-dab into Original Cindy. He shrugged half apologetically, feeling bad for having startled his friend. “Sorry about that.”

But Original Cindy was looking him up and down critically, noting that he was wet enough to obviously have been out in this weather for quite awhile. Also, his reply was less than enthusiastic, leading Original Cindy to the correct conclusion that something was wrong. “Boy, what you doing out here in the rain? What happened?”

He started to say that it was nothing, but was stopped by her no-nonsense look. Running a hand through his very wet hair, Alec sighed, stepping under the offered reprieve of her umbrella, if only to avoid offending her and earning himself more questions. “Max came over… we had a bit of a fight, so I left.”

Eyeing him suspiciously, Original Cindy pieced this small amount of information together in her head. She lived with a transgenic just as uninformative when questioned about something she didn’t want to talk about, so Original Cindy was more than used to figuring it out on her own with limited information. “Max still there?”

Shrugging, Alec thought about that. Max probably would have left by now, but he had no proof that she had, though why she would still be there confused him. _Probably not done stepping all over me._ “I guess, she was when I left.”

Shaking her head, Original Cindy made a gesture that could only be interpreted as her ‘why me’ look. “How long you been out here?” she didn’t actually wait for Alec’s response, already pretty aware that he’d been out in the rain for a good long time. “Boo, go back to your apartment. You gotta go get things straightened out with Max…”

Looking up, Alec waited for her to say something else, possibly start in on a full-blown lecture. But Original Cindy had firmly closed her mouth, placed her free hand on her hip, and was giving him a look that said there would be hell to pay if she _had_ to explain things further. He nodded, realizing that she would probably drag him there if he didn’t go willingly. “Fine.”

Now it was Original Cindy’s turn to sigh, Alec looked hurt, and she knew that Max was hurt over everything, and she hated to see them going through this. _If OC ever gets her hands on whoever started Manticore,_ she vowed, _OC will take the bastard down!_ She watched Alec turn back the way he’d come, shoulders slumped. “Try not to kill each other, you two…”

!~(*)~!

The best that she could figure on the situation was that she didn’t really want to leave. It had nothing to do with her feeling guilty and like she had been a bitch, or the persistent mood-swings that indicated. And she certainly wasn’t waiting for the apartment’s owner to return… _At least, in a roundabout way I’m not._

 _So what if I was a bitch, I’m allowed,_ she lamented to herself in the same internal monologue that she had been keeping, _I’m all mood-swingy, and it’s not fair… I didn’t ask for this!_ A rather nasty part of her mind insisted upon adding, _of course, it’s not like Alec asked for this either._

She knew it wasn’t Alec’s fault, hell, the transgenic would have had to be blind if she thought a baby had been anywhere on his radar before all this. It wasn’t like it was really on her big list either. _But at least he’s not flipping out like you are._ She promptly decided that having arguments with herself wasn’t the best idea.

And it seemed there was only one point on which all of her could agree upon; this random act of evil was brought on solely by Logan Cale, there was no doubt about it. She had trusted him for almost two years and believed in him, saw him as someone who could understand her and help her when she needed it.

He had been her advice giver, but… the things he had said… Max shuddered just at the implications of his thinking. She’d been in a fucked up government program that taught them to be good little soldiers, reading the opponent was an important part of that.

 _"I'd like to think you haven't gone gallivanting around with anyone else… Do you have to keep bringing him into this? It doesn't matter who the father is…”_ She couldn’t believe that Logan could say such things and really mean them. Like it hadn’t even occurred to him to factor Alec into the equation… or for that matter her own feelings over everything.

It almost scared her how out of character he was acting; it felt like she didn’t know the man at all anymore. Max couldn’t understand where this sudden insanity regarding her affairs had come from; her and Logan had been drifting long before she’d gone into heat. He was acting like nothing had changed.

So, Logan had said hurtful things to her, and then she had turned around and said horrible and hurtful things to Alec. _Sensing a pattern here…_ Max was willing to admit that she had not only been a total bitch, she had totally blown an already crazy situation further out of proportion.

That was all well and good with the self-realization, but what she really couldn’t figure out was why she was still sitting here, waiting. Sure, she wanted to apologize, not in that many words, and make sure that Alec understood that she wasn’t going to just run off and not tell him a thing.

She could do that over the phone or later, when they both weren’t so worked up. There were a million reasons, times, and places that she could apologize without sitting in Alec’s apartment, at near midnight, waiting for him to come back. _Assuming he’s coming at all._

The number one reason that sitting there was a big huge no-no was that it gave Max way too much time to think. To think about things that she didn’t want to but was all of a sudden supposed to have the answers for. Things like the b- thing, which was growing inside of her at this very moment.

That thought alone was enough to make Max want to run and hide under her covers and never come out. She wasn’t even close to being ready to talk about how this would change her life, or what she was going to do about it… she just wasn’t ready.

 _Maybe talking is the key… when I’m not being such a bitch… with Alec, we could talk about what to do._ Of course, even she knew that some happy reconciliation and conversation ending with all the answers found was impossible tonight. Most likely, they’d fight again and one of them would leave again.

Yawning, Max tried to curl up further into a ball on the couch, disturbed by the track that her thoughts were taking. She blinked, and for that brief millisecond that her eyes were closed, Max wondered if Alec was even going to show up at all tonight. _He’s probably off getting drunk at Crash, lucky bastard…_

Then, she opened her eyes and there he was. If it hadn’t been for his rain soaked appearance, Max would have been sure that she had just imagined him standing in the doorway… But he was definitely wet, and she hadn’t even realized that it had been raining.

Not to mention the look on his face as he stood there; not coming in, but not leaving either. Everything about him was so grim and hard, set; as though he was just waiting to be attacked - she’d never seen Alec look like that before.

Stretching and moving to sit up, Max caught his eyes, and there was a flash of hope there. She had no idea about what, but it was clear to her by his stance that something had changed while he had been gone. Alec looked resolved, and she wondered if she had really hurt him before.

But he looked so… _beautiful…_ standing there, so different from how she’d ever seen him. For the first time, Max saw someone that she could trust, someone who would be there and who knew how to be there. Someone in control and functioning, and still… despite everything, concerned for her. It was there in his eyes.

Right at that moment, he took her breath away.

!~(*)~!

“Just get it over with, I want this finished!” he paced steadily around the smaller room in which he had just entered but a moment before. Obviously, there had been pacing in the area that had preceded this room.

The other person wasn’t giving satisfactory answers though, as a matter of fact, the explanations and answers were getting worse as the minutes drug by. It was making him fidget, hand tapping his leg as the circled the room, once, twice, a thousand times, it seemed.

Those that knew him would recognize this as nerves, but there was nobody like that here, not now, nobody to tell the man to take a breath and sit the hell down. Just him. And the person on the other end of the phone line; someone who wasn’t being very good company at the moment.

Bobbing his head up and down in slight nods that were in time with whatever it was that the other person was saying, he continued his pacing route. These nods weren’t happy little yes nods, oh no, they were short, decisive, aggravated nods.

This was getting beyond information that he didn’t want; Logan dealt with information that he didn’t want all the time. This was failure, plain and simple, both his failure and that of the person who was babbling excuses on the other end of the line.

 _“I can’t talk to you about this, not now,”_ her voice echoed inside of his head all the while that the other person’s echoed against his ear. For every word of the conversation that Logan heard, he heard at least two sentences from his ruined dinner with Max.

He had failed at his reconciliation, at the great reminder that he loved her. _That’s the problem, Max, you never think that you can talk to me anymore._ Of course, it hadn’t been all his fault, dinner hadn’t even begun when Max had decided to drop the bomb. _“I’m pregnant.”_

Yeah, that had been a brilliant way to start the night, _Oh Logan, I know we’re supposed to be having this romantic dinner, but I just thought I’d tell you that I’m pregnant with someone else’s baby, and I’m not even all that concerned about it._ Although it made him cringe inside of his own head, Logan felt better venting his angst in a high-pitched accent that nobody would ever hear.

But now it was time for the one-sided conversation, for which he was the listener, to fade back into his conscious mind. The news was just getting worse, however, and Logan promptly decided he make his opinion known of this endeavor. “It’s caused me more trouble than I can say. It’s not worth it, do you hear?” _Not like I have anything left._

The reassurances were nothing more than a vague murmur to him, so wrapped up was he in the new obstacle in his life. Alec. It was all Alec’s fault - if he had been able to control himself than none of this would have happened.

 _Max would not have been sitting here telling me that my love didn’t matter because of some stupid transgenic if he hadn’t said or done something. He’s brainwashed her somehow, he has this power with the baby._ Back to the baby again, Logan scowled at the empty room, _A baby that I could raise better than he could ever hope to. I could provide for it, for Max. I love her._

The walls offered no answers to his silent plea to make this all just disappear. _I guess I’ll have to make a less silent plea, huh._ Turning back to the conversation at hand to make it appear as though he hadn’t just missed half of what had been said, Logan interjected, “Just get it done, and get it done now!”

There was but a moment of silence on the other end of the line before the person hastily assured Logan that this time it would be done, before muttering a quick goodbye and hanging up. Sighing in relief, Logan clicked his own phone off and finally ceased pacing to go sit on his bed. _About damn time this got finished with…_


	11. Hide

## !~(*Chapter 11: Hide*)~!

The only sound was the rain pelting the windows of her apartment, but it was enough. There was a headache, steadily building, and the rain irritated her rather than soothed her as it usually did.

She paced the floors of her apartment barefoot to avoid the noise of her shoes against the wood, glad that she lived alone so that another person’s shuffling wouldn’t distract her and make the pounding in her head worse. The amplified noise of the rain was dong a nice enough job as it was.

To be honest with herself, she knew the rain wasn’t really the source of her angst; it was the phone call she had just received. The kind of call that made her wonder if it was really worth it to keep running and keep hiding when everything she wanted was right here.

And she couldn’t have it.

Not now, not without endangering everyone, not without endangering… her… But there would be no happily ever after, and she knew it better than anyone. No rest for the good. No rest for the wicked. It didn’t matter which, there would never be any rest for her.

She had tried a shower, to calm her nerves, but even the slightest noise had been setting her on edge since the call this evening and the water against tile had been as bad as the rain against glass was now. _Of all the nights to rain, when all I want is quiet… I have to think._

It was all her fault, and she knew it, she had failed her mission, abandoned ship, and now they were coming for her. There would be hell to pay, she wouldn’t escape that, couldn’t. But she didn’t want anyone else to suffer, not because of her. Not when they had welcomed her and been so nice to her even though she was new.

They would help her, she knew that, but it wasn’t a battle that they could win and she didn’t want to involve them. It was bad enough that they knew her… she shuddered when she thought of what would happen if she wasn’t here and they came looking for her and found her friends.

So, she couldn’t leave. But she couldn’t stay either.

And it was this quandary that kept her silently pacing the floors of her apartment and cursing the rain that used to soothe her and kiss her wounds. Now it was like salt against her headache, and there was nothing she could do about it.

When the phone rang again, it’s piercing shriek caused her to jump, senses on high alert, and she was loathe to pick it up, but she did nonetheless. It wouldn’t do to make people aware that there was something wrong with her. “Hello?”

The voice on the other end of the line had the effect that nothing else could; it drowned out all the peripheral noise and calmed her nerves. Loving, but down to earth at the same time, someone that she knew would do anything for her.

 _Maybe I do need to ask for help…_ Rain took a deep breath, already knowing that it would do no good once she’d said what she had to. “No, everything’s not all right.” She could hear the sharp intake of air on the other side of the phone that matched her own, “there’s something I have to tell you.”

!~(*)~!

The club was unusually empty, only a few people wandering around here and there, mostly nursing drinks and staying silent. This was probably due to the late hour of night, and the patrons having nowhere else to go and nobody else to talk to except their drinks.

So, Kendra was understandably startled when a hand touched her shoulder gently and she spun around to see a familiar face. Goofy though it was, she wouldn’t trade a friendly face for anything at the moment. “Sketchy! What are you doing here?”

There was a shrug that was a classic Sketchy move of avoidance. He settled down at the table with Kendra, surprised to see her there so late, and by herself, but not wanting to question it too much, lest she start questioning him. “I got me a new job, a special one. What about you?”

“Lamenting my sudden singleness,” Kendra sighed, looking down into her drink and taking another large swig of beer because even the thought still pained her. It was sudden indeed, a note on the door and her stuff on the porch.

Sketchy nodded sagely, this was something he was more than familiar with, and he could offer advice that nobody else could. “Ahh,” he breathed out, pouring himself a glass of beer from the pitcher sitting on the table, “that always sucks.”

Nodding, Kendra took this at face value. It was Sketchy after all; he never did anything that wasn’t exactly what he said it was. Although, now that she looked at him, he did seem kind of nervous. “A new job? What do you do?”

For possibly the first time in his life, Sketchy sat up straight and seemed offended. For a man who had been turned down by countless amounts of girls in numerous degrading ways, for a simple question about a job to get him offended was something extremely bizarre. “Ain’t anybody’s business. It’s just for a little while anyways, I haven’t quit Jam Pony or nothing.”

Kendra shook her head slightly, wondering if she’d just been drinking too much that Sketchy seemed so uptight. She knew Sketchy though, and shrugged it off; it was probably just something that embarrassed him. Or he had a new girlfriend and didn’t want to admit it. Sketchy always had been strange when he was dating someone.

While Kendra was lost in a slur of slightly inebriated thoughts, Sketchy settled back down and resumed his advice about being single. He was almost done by the time Kendra realized he was speaking and tuned back in. “And that, my friend, is why no matter what they say, you just brush it off. Ain’t nothing wrong with being single for the right reasons.”

“What about the wrong reasons,” Kendra asked, still unable to believe that supposedly her teaching more full time had been the cause of her most recent break-up. She had thought that this was going somewhere, and he had been so supportive of her in the beginning.

Shrugging once again, Sketchy motioned to their beers, not one to avoid hiding emotions in alcohol. “That is one of life’s mysteries that only lots of alcohol can solve properly.”

Lifting her glass only slightly shakily, she met Sketchy half way for an impromptu cheer over that declaration, “Amen to that, Sketchy,” and with that she tossed back another gulp, and conversation became unnecessary.

!~(*)~!

Original Cindy wasn’t quite sure what to think when she finally got home. As if the torrential rains weren’t enough, she’d found out that everything else was turned upside-down in under a month.

The first and most obvious event had been Max’s sudden pregnancy, and dealing in an alternating pattern with Max, Alec, and Logan, and their wonderfully interconnected problems. Then Rain had walked into her life and Original Cindy was feeling so happy that she was out of her element. Sure, she had found out that Rain was a transgenic, but at least half of her friends were also, so that hadn’t rocked Original Cindy’s boat too much.

As a matter of fact, she was wondering when something else would go wrong to pull her out of her joyful haze and praying to everything that she could that Alec and Max’s apparent tiff could count so that everything else would stay okay.

Original Cindy doubted that right now, since she had tried her weekly call of both Kendra and Sketchy and neither had answered, or returned her call in the ensuing hours that had gone by.

But enough was enough and Original Cindy was done with other people’s problems for the day. She had the apartment to herself until Max returned, if she returned, and she highly intended to take a nice, long bubble bath before that happened.

Kendra and Sketchy could wait till the morning, and so could Max if she came home with some problem. Original Cindy would be thinking of how pleasant her time with Rain had been this afternoon, from the delicious breakfast that she didn’t have to make to the topics they had conversed about.

And she suspected that there was plenty of hot water since she had been gone overnight and she doubted that Max had taken the time to do anything more than hop into the shower, if the periodic phone calls she had received were any clue.

Sure enough, there was more than enough water for Original Cindy to take a well-deserved long, hot, bubble-filled bath. “Mmm,” she sank down happily, “OC sure hopes that everybody else is as relaxed as she is right now… Damn, I’ve gotta do this more often.”

With that final mental note to herself, Original Cindy decided that she had done enough thinking and worrying for now and let her mind drift to more pleasant thoughts, such as what color she would paint her nails after her bath.


	12. Negotiate

## !~(*Chapter 12: Negotiate*)~!

For all his posturing and wariness, Alec could tell something was off by the way Max was looking at him and it made him nervous. _Enter the sucker to be punched, part two._ He sighed, coming to sit down across from Max and running his hand through his soaked hair. When there was no sign of movement from her, Alec grudgingly asked, “So, are we going to be civil, or should I save myself the misery and go to bed now?”

Biting her lip slightly, Max snapped out of the revere that she had been in since his sudden appearance. So much was suddenly clear to her but it was spiraling her thoughts into new and confusing places. There was one thing she remembered though, brought forth by Alec’s cool tones toward her. “Look, I was a bitch, I admit it,” she bit her lip a little harder at having to come so close to a well-deserved apology.

Alec sighed again but made no move toward the open door. He stayed silent for a moment, waiting to see if Max was going to continue, but her large eyes were sad and looking downward, as though some huge weight had just now settled on her already burdened shoulders. “It’s just, what happened? That wasn’t, isn’t, you.”

Refusing to look up, Max echoed Alec’s sigh, it was too much to look at him right now, everything was suddenly too much right now. _And welcome to reality: first stop cold, second, harsh._ She figured that she owed Alec a better explanation than that though. “I was so mad at Logan, you know? I went to see him and I was hoping for support, or suggestions, or something, and he was so mean about it all.”

“And I was the convenient kicking post?” Alec asked, trying not to sound angry even though he was, though not so much at Max anymore. He’d always had the suspicion that Logan would turn into a real asshole, but now had certainly not been the time. _Should have just killed him at the start._

Bringing her arms up so that her elbows were on her knees and she could place her face in her hands, Max tried to sort through her thought pattern, to use some of those great multi-processing skills that had apparently abandoned her. “No. Yes. God,” she took a deep breath, looking up, “I have no clue what to do Alec. I never expected to be in this position. There’s White and Manticore still after us, and I don’t exactly qualify as mothering material.”

Slowly, gently, Alec stood up and came over to squat on the floor in front of Max. He lifted her hands away from her face and refused to let them go when she tried to pull out of his grasp. Only once she had met his eyes did Alec speak, “You don’t have to know what to do, Max, that’s why we’re in this together, remember?”

Max sniffled slightly, letting out a little laugh, “Guess I can’t back out of that one, my words right…” she paused to catch Alec’s answering smile, “I didn’t mean to make it sound like… I’m just… if we have… this… baby… what could happen to… it… us?”

And instantly it was clear to Alec what had Max so indecisive, the same thing that had been rather plaguing his thoughts since this whole mess began. Manticore, White, still hunting down both Max and Alec, and how either of them could hope to keep a baby safe when they could barely keep themselves out of a cage… “What could happen if we don’t, have the baby?”

Unexpectedly, Max leaned forward, collapsing into Alec’s arms and toppling him off balance until they both lay sprawled out on the cool floor. She stayed there, half on top of him, not crying but just barely not. She had never fancied herself having children, but she probably wouldn’t get another chance, she knew that, and Max wasn’t sure it was in her to end another life to help that person evade Manticore. “We’ve got about a snowball’s chance in hell…” she didn’t have to say more.

Immediately, however, Alec’s spirits were lifted, and he knew that he would take that snowball the distance if it were the last thing he did. He was so relieved, even though he knew as well as Max did the reasons this was probably the much harder and more painful path. He let go of Max to bring his arms around her and tried for a smile, “Hey, who said hell couldn’t be cold? Freezing could be just as much torture as burning.”

They stayed like that, silent but laughing and crying together, sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the living room, door to the hall still wide open, all sorts of people still after them. But together, now they were certainly together in this and they both knew it.

!~(*)~!

There was a sickening crunch as the door came right off it’s hinges, splintering into great cracks down the middle, already being trampled further by the men pouring into the room.

It was hardly a silent entrance but at this time of night it didn’t matter, and there were enough of them, should it. Through a loudspeaker that echoed and screamed too piercingly for the tiny apartment, the leader called out, “Cynthia McEachin, please come out with your hands up!”

Not waiting for a reply, the men fanned out, flashlights blazing, spare hands clasped nervously over guns. They searched each nook quickly and quietly, before coming to the closed bedroom door. While two men stood guard and at ready for an attack, the other two kicked it through with the same force that had unhinged the doorway out of the apartment.

There they found their target, already out of bed from the blast of the loudspeaker and staring wide-eyed between the men now in her bedroom and the window, even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to escape. Forcing her voice to stay steady, she called to the men blinding her with flashlights, “Yo, what you boys want?”

No answer was forthcoming; instead the two men in her room moved forward and caught her by the arms quickly and effectively before she could even recover her dazed sight to see what they were doing. They half dragged, half guided her out of the room and right up to their commander. “Sir, is this her, sir?” One man holding her asked.

Mercifully putting down his loudspeaker, and not shining the light directly in her eyes, the man in charge, as it was, addressed her in clipped tones, “Are you Cynthia McEachin?”

“And I said, what’s it to you?” Original Cindy fired back angrily, eyes still spinning even as she prepared to launch an attack against her captors, if need be.

Something was shoved roughly towards her face, supposedly so that she could see it, but that was doubtful as Original Cindy could hardly see anything at the moment. The leader seemed to recognize that fact, at her blank expression, and barked out, “You are hereby being detained by the Seattle police for questioning.”

As her eyes cleared and the message became apparent, Original Cindy gave up all thoughts of attacking and escaping. These were police, a lot of police, and they wanted her: not any of her friends. As far as she knew, the police weren’t specifically after any transgenics anyway, and she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. “Questioning about what?”

Instead of answering, the policeman motioned to his fellow officers to follow him and moved to exit the ransacked apartment. “C’mon boys, let’s get her back before we do anything else.”

Anger flared in Original Cindy’s mind at both being ignored and the wonderfully useless mess they had made of her and Max’s apartment. Plus, they wouldn’t let her go, which was starting to irritate her even more so. Original Cindy figured that if this was just for questioning they should be treating her a damn sight nicer. “Don’t even tell Original Cindy you boys are leaving her apartment like this, there better be reimbursement for damages, and if you think for one minute I won’t file a complaint then you’re just delusional little-”

Her protests were abruptly silenced, though, as they reached the police vehicles and pushed her inside. Quite unexpectedly - for one who had never been involved with the police before - everything went dark. Then… nothing…

!~(*)~!

"Look, man, I'm not sure about this." The man was fixed with an icy glare that sent tingles of warning down his spine, which agitated his already fried nerves.

Not taking his eyes off of the young man, White walked closer, not even bothering to blink. He doubted the other man would notice though, as he seemed to live in a world where odd occurrences did not happen. Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to blink and seem relaxed, White asked, "What's not to be sure of? This is a very easy assignment that my company is prepared to pay heartily for."

Hedging slightly at the mention of money, Sketchy nervously toed the ground and tried to backtrack slightly. He certainly didn't want to lose this job, not with the way things were going at Jam Pony, and he didn't want to be stuck in that hellhole for the rest of his life. Sketchy wanted to do something. Maybe be a reporter or something. "I know it's easy. Just makes me a little uncomfortable, ya know, like I'm spying or something."

Turning back around so that the young man couldn't see his fists angrily clenching the edges of the table so hard that it threatened at any second to break, White tried to remember that he was playing the normal part of a business man. And that the part he played was necessary to his current objective. "No I wouldn't know. That's why you're the one being paid." He turned back to Sketchy and tried to look apologetic, "However, if you can't handle it, we can find someone else."

Taking two rather shuffled, if fast, steps forward, Sketchy shook his head firmly. "Nah, man, I can handle it." He looked around nervously, realizing he had unwittingly entered farther into the rather large and seemingly all metal room.

"Good." White smiled slightly, and then remembered the caliber of idiot he was dealing with. Irked that he had to go to such measures for success, White demanded, "You do remember the assignment, right?”

Laughing nervously, Sketchy waved this question off, "Yeah, sure, got it." When no reply was forthcoming, Sketchy realized that White was far from convinced. Taking a deep, long-suffering, breath, Sketchy repeated. "Follow, observe, write notes, get info, take photos. Can do.”

Nodding sharply, White smiled more to himself than to the young man in front of him, sloppy and clutching a sad little camera that White doubted even worked. However, this Sketchy character was exactly what he needed, and as long as he didn't know too much and everything went according to plan, Sketchy wouldn't even guess what his role in the big picture was. "So I suppose you haven't gathered anything yet?"

Shaking his head sadly, Sketchy hoped it wasn't obvious that he had spent more time drinking with Kendra and trying not to self-analyze than working on this new job. "Nope, nothing other than the regular stuff."

"Ahh," White sighed, almost imperceptibly to the human eye, and tried to sound reassuring for the nervous young man sharing the room with him. "Well, guess I better let you get back to work then."

Nodding quickly, Sketchy began to back out of the impressive, if kind of scary, room, trying to remember that his new boss had given him no real reason to be as paranoid as he was at this moment. Unsure of how to reply, he went with his normal instincts, "Yeah, man, I'll get right on it."

Waiting till Sketchy was just crossing the threshold of the room, towards the outside, White called back, "Oh, and Sketchy?" He paused, until Sketchy met his intent stare, "Bring me back any information as soon as you find it. And hurry up, my bosses are getting on my back about this."

Offering a small sympathetic smile about unreasonable bosses, Sketchy nodded and hastily fled the room and, just as soon after, the building. Knowing that this time, he had better get some information or something, and get it soon.

White just chuckled, the sound filling up the bizarrely domed metal room sickeningly. Turning back around and addressing what appeared to be a mirror, "Seems like everything is going according to plan this time. There won't be any more..." he paused, irritated at the failure of previous plans, "...setbacks... not on my watch."


	13. Foolery

## !~(*Chapter 13: Foolery*)~!

"Miss McEachin, I'm so sorry for any discomfort my men may have caused. There was some fear for your safety and they were under orders to get you here, safely, and as quickly as possible."

Blinking groggily up at the man in a business suit, Original Cindy tried to focus her blurry eyes and spinning head on the voice that was directed at her. After a second the room came into clearer focus. "So what, is Original Cindy under arrest then? Fool, I ain't done nothing."

The man smiled in an overly wide gesture, as two guards Original Cindy hadn't seen came and helped her to stand before sitting her up straight in the single chair of the room. Keeping directly in front of her, the man began with a sort of sick chuckle. "Of course not, Miss McEachin. We are not arresting you. This is a secure area, for your safety only."

Original Cindy paused to glare at the guards for bodily moving her, but was nonetheless thankful for the support of the chair. The way her head was spinning and how tingly her limbs felt, Original Cindy doubted that she would have been able to manage the feat of getting over here on her own. "Seems to Original Cindy that the only threat to her safety has been your muscle boys dragging her the hell out of her bed in the middle of the night."

Grin not faltering; the lead man motioned the two guards to leave. They did so, opening the cell door, exiting, closing it firmly, and standing just out of easy earshot. Once this had been accomplished in the silence following Original Cindy's statement, the man spoke again. "Miss McEachin, while their methods may have seemed unnecessary, I assure you the Seattle police had nothing but your best intentions at mind."

Rubbing at her arms where she was sure there would be bruises from her rough handling by the officers, Original Cindy kept a skeptical glance firmly placed on this Mr. Up Town Intimidation. "So, what was this supposed threat to Original Cindy's safety?"

Placing both hands on the table and leaning forward - whether to better look at Original Cindy or in an attempt at further intimidation, she couldn't tell - his badge flashing from the inside of his coat, he began, "It has been discovered that an acquaintance of yours is not exactly as they seem."

Despite having never been arrested or 'detained' before, Original Cindy had still had a fair amount of dealings with police, investigators, and jails. If Diamond hadn't been enough, Max's brief run-ins with the law had made sure Original Cindy knew what was what. She could tell that this guy was hiding something. "And who might this acquaintance of mine be? And you better damn well give me some straight answers if all this is for my own safety."

Twitching slightly, the smile finally sunk off of the officer's face, his eyes filled with something akin to glee. "Ah, well. I believe you know her as one 'Rain.' That's correct then, by the look in your eyes."

A sudden rush of anger got rid of any lingering tingly sensations that had been bogging down Original Cindy's senses. She spared a brief moment to wonder what the other policemen had done to her to knock her out, before returning to the focus of this whole thing. "Rain? What the hell do ya'll want with her?!"

Mr. Up Town Intimidation made a half snorting sound of muffled laughter before his smirk rose back firmly in place on his extraordinarily large mouth. "Yes, well, I'm afraid that information is currently classified. But now that this has been cleared up, perhaps you're ready to answer our questions? First, how long have you known this 'Rain' individual?"

Crossing her arms firmly over her chest, paying no heed to the fact that she was still in her pajamas, Original Cindy pursed her considerable lips and fixed Mr. Up Town Intimidation with her most steely and blank glare. _If that boy thinks he's getting anything out of OC, he's got another thought coming._

With another twitch that seemed somewhat angrier than the first, Mr. Up Town Intimidation leaned forward even more; so that Original Cindy was sure his enormous mouth would topple him over, and sneered at her. "Miss McEachin, may I remind you that you are being questioned over a wanted individual. If you refuse to cooperate, we will arrest you, and rest assured, we're not so nice with that part."

Kicking her feet up on the table and placing her arms behind her head, Original Cindy tilted the metal chair back until it was more comfortable. Giving her most winning smile, Original Cindy announced, "Figured I might as well be comfortable if I'm staying, then, because OC ain't telling you fools nothing about my boo."

!~(*)~!

The opened door threw him for a moment, made his long strides pause. Was there something bad happening on the other side, or was this just an accidental breach of security? He wanted to investigate, but Max was always telling him about privacy and manners and he never seemed to be doing the right of either.

 _What to do… what to do…_ Max’s voice answered his question first, a memory of something she’d said long ago. ‘ _Fools rush into battle without knowing what’s what…_ ’ Not that Max had ever followed her own advice, or so Joshua had noticed.

He started to breathe in, pull apart the meshed smells into individual and distinct scents that would give him a mental picture of everything that was going on behind the closed door but another memory-voice stopped him. ‘ _When things are a’rocking, don’t come a’knocking… or sniffing for that matter. Yeah, definitely no sniffing._ ’

That voice was more condescending, yet more accurate. This was Alec’s apartment; he should follow Alec’s words. Joshua shifted his considerable weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably. He wasn’t good at this thinking in society stuff, wasn’t good at their rules. He was good at providing, protecting, action.

One large hand raised and he pawed at the door slightly, wanting to knock but not sure if this was a situation where he needed an element of surprise. But even the light movement was enough to push the door forward and open.

The low light didn’t even cause him to pause, his more canine instincts allowing him to see in the darker apartment easily. The first thing that Joshua found off was the lack of distinct noise and any present people. By habit, he lowered his gaze to look for his shorter friends but still found nothing.

Ears twitched slightly as two steady streams of breath could be heard. Crouching down and looking much nearer to the ground, Joshua finally spotted the sources of the breathing.

Alec and Max, tangled up slightly, on the ground, the door still wide open to the hall, and apparently, they were fast asleep.

Joshua regarded this situation thoughtfully if briefly. Deciding to see what was ‘up’ as Max tended to put it, Joshua tilted his head to one side and asked, “Little fella’s fell?” It came out louder than he had intended, and sensitive dog ears winced with both the volume to themselves and the others in the room.

The other two transgenics had an immediately startled response but quickly regained their bearings. Three sets of bewildered eyes met, as Alec and Max slowly pulled themselves into sitting positions. “What the hell,” there was a pause as Alec’s mental processors caught up with the situation, “Joshua…”

Scooting away from Alec and tucking her knees up to her chest protectively, Max leaned her back against the front of the couch. She mustered up a small smile for Joshua, remembering belatedly that she hadn’t bothered to go see him in far too long. “Hey, Big Fella.”

Sensing that he shouldn’t have said anything, let alone at the volume that it had come out, Joshua offered up the most pathetic and accurate puppy-dog eyes that one could ever hope to see. Apologetically he shrugged his head, almost whispering now, “Hey…”

“Actually, Max was the one who fell,” Alec spoke abruptly into the relative silence, addressing Joshua’s original question. He hoped desperately that if he didn’t make a big deal out of today then Joshua wouldn’t make a big deal and Max wouldn’t freak out again.

Moving from his previous crouching position to one sitting on the floor, Joshua stretched comfortably. “And what happened before Alec caught her?”

Max’s eyes widened slightly, and Alec sighed, _one request… just the one…_ Therefore, to say he was surprised when Max took the initiative to answer was an understatement. Reaching one tentative hand across the floor to where Alec’s rested, Max replied, “Just talking.”

This behavior was studied carefully for a moment or two before Joshua said anything else. He decided to change the subject but the crease across his immense brow said that it was not forgotten. “Why no Max lately?”

Now it was Max’s turn to look apologetic while Alec looked on, waiting to see what would happen before he said anything further. Eyes almost level with Joshua’s, Max sighed audibly, “I’m so sorry… I’ve just been all stressed and busy and… I should have checked up on you anyway.”

“Joshua fine,” he said amiably enough, “Alec ‘checked up’ on me.” Joshua was proud of his use of all this new terminology. After only a brief second though, the crease in his forehead was back, “Max stressed over baby?”

Wide eyes sharply turned on Alec, who put the one hand was wasn’t being crushed in a vise-like grip up in a ‘wasn’t me’ gesture. Seeing that no answer was forthcoming from that corner, Max turned back to Joshua, suddenly nervous. “Joshua, I… well… I mean… yeah…”

Grinning happily, Joshua nodded. Oblivious to the troubled looks that passed between the two X5’s, Joshua offered sagely, “Smelled different.” He struggled for a moment to explain, “All full and warm… Little fella’s having a little fella!”

Letting out twin breaths that neither knew they had been holding, Alec and Max both smiled slightly at Joshua’s apparent approval. While some emotions were hard to tell on the dog-man, his excitement was unmistakable.

Cautiously, Alec placed his arm around Max’s still hunched shoulders, and she fell into his arms gratefully, sliding closer and laying her head against his chest. Her look was unreadable but there was a smile on her face, and Alec figured that was a good sign. “Yeah,” she murmured, “we’re having a baby.”

Suddenly feeling all ‘full and warm’ inside, Alec decided to share his good mood. Motioning to the door, Alec asked, “You wanna get that?” He waited a moment for Joshua to close the door and stand hovering by it before he continued. “Hey, Josh, if you wanna grab something to eat, feel right ahead. Get all settled in.”

A large grin lit up Joshua’s face as he moved towards the kitchen. For a second he said nothing as he rummaged through cupboards. The almost-silence was enough to lull Max to sleep again, still tired after her stressful week, and had Alec in a kind of daze. Joshua’s booming voice broke back into reality quickly, “Big Fella gonna make macaroni and hotdogs!”

Shaking his head amusedly, Alec called back, “Just a suggestion, Joshua, you might want to try them separate…” Barking laughter greeted him at that and Alec settled back down, reasonably sure that whatever it was that Joshua made, it would be edible.

!~(*)~!

The noisy, crowded scene wasn’t usually to his taste, but this once he was willing to make an exception. There was only one person who could make him sit, breathe, and ignore the scattered bottles of liquor for more than a moment.

Though, in all reality, he wouldn’t be sitting very long. That same person had a nasty habit of insisting he join all those writhing, sweaty, bodies out on that dance floor in the disgusting fashion that passed for dance with these people.

Of course, he was the only one who was able to drag them both away from this scene, to a low-priced almost-fancy restaurant or dancing at one of the few clubs still up and functioning where it was slower and more emotional.

A quick glance at his watch confirmed that he had successfully escaped the dance floor for five whole minutes. Pulling stiffly at the more relaxed clothing than he was used to, Normal noticed something else and much more disturbing.

It was 4:51am.

As in, the not-so-early morning. Officially.

Hand placed against his head, Normal felt for some sort of fever. Something to account for the fact that he had to be at work in just over two hours and he was yet to go to bed.

There was no fever, of course, no sign of a temperature other than that of everyone else in the room. Nothing but sweat and small patches of stickiness where the hair gel he was now being forced to use had run onto his forehead while he’d been dancing and sweating.

Standing up with as much authority as he could muster at this time of day, Normal prepared to wade his way through the mass of bodies swarming the massive apartment. There was one person responsible for his utter irresponsibleness this month, and he aimed to give them a piece of his mind.

After a good deal of shoving, pushing, yelling, and finally begging, Normal managed to make his way through the crowd to the kitchen.

There, pouring drinks with the expertise most bartenders never came close to achieving, was the source of all this madness. Quietly, Normal came up behind them and stood just an inch away, reaching his arms out. “Baby…”

The other person turned, a delighted smile present and pressed one of the newly mixed drinks to Normal’s lips before he could protest. After he had taken a sip, the drink was pulled away as hips sashayed to the music from the other room enticingly. “Good, no?”

Good was not correct. Fabulous, mind-blowing, intoxicating, and most likely illegal, were getting closer to the picture of that drink. Shaking off the momentary stupor, Normal tried again, steeling up his resolve. “Sugar, it’s almost five. I need to go get ready for work.”

“Screw work,” was the immediate reply, one often used, but with no more success than right now. “Stay here with me,” the drink was hovering sinfully close to Normal’s lips again but he steadfastly ignored it.

Comfortingly, he placed his hands on well-toned arms, hoping that slight touch would save him from the other’s wrath. “You know I can’t. I have responsibilities. They need me.” He laughed at how ludicrous that statement really was with how his workers treated him.

Sure enough, eyes clouded up, bottom lip jutted forward and trembled, and eyelashes fluttered. “But…” a shiver raced through Normal’s companion, “but… we were having so much fun, weren’t we?” Tantalizing while still sad… “We could have so much more fun…”

Normal shook his head resolutely. He would not miss work. He’d been late, he’d called in sick, but he would not just not show. Besides, he had bosses bigger than him; he could still lose his position if he wasn’t careful. “Sorry,” he mumbled, quickly turning away from those large eyes.

“Fine,” called back the other voice, yelling to be heard over the music, “but you better hurry back when you’re done with work. We’ll be waiting.”

He was about to ask, _we?_ But then Normal remembered, _the party… of course the party will still be going on._ Despite his desire to ask for all the other people to be kicked out by tonight so that they could have some alone time, Normal just nodded. He knew better then to interrupt party plans here. “See you tonight,” he agreed and turned to go before he was talked out of it.


	14. Time

## !~(*Chapter 14: Time*)~!

Once Upon A Time was not a good way for anything important to start. Sure, for fairytales it was fine, even for some pre-pulse movies it had been acceptable. But for Normal? Downright frightening.

Max blinked very slowly several times, as if the vision in front of her would disappear. She half-heartedly wondered if the stress of the last week had thrown her transgenic hearing for an unexpected loop. Still stunned, she even cast a glance at Alec, who nodded that yes, he saw it too.

Oblivious as always to the inner workings of the transgenic mind, Normal took a moment to sneeze and then, distracted and overtired, restarted his tale. "Excuse me. Now, as I was saying, 'Once Upon A Time' there was a nice but tragically overworked messenger service manager and two little messengers. These messengers were fast enough at delivering packages, but had the fatal flaw of FAILING TO COME TO WORK." He paused to readjust his glasses after that brief outburst as his world was again pounding. "The moral of this story? If you want to have a job, actually bother showing up for it. Ingrates. Now, bip, bip, people!"

Feeling that he had said his due, Normal handed a shell-shocked Alec and Max a package each, promptly turned on his heel, and strode back to the counter.

Rolling his eyes, Alec noted the 'fragile' marking on the package he was holding - as well as Normal's turned back. Raising an eyebrow, he casually tossed the package up into the air and caught it single-handedly, just for the hell of it. "Remind me why we came to work today?"

Turning to her locker to drop off her bag, Max answered, already knowing that Alec had followed her, "Because as Normal so frighteningly pointed out, we haven't exactly made much of an appearance the last couple of days."

Slamming her locker door shut, Max noted that one of the main ways that she started her workday was missing. _Normal yelling... check..._ she ran over the mental list in her head, only stopping once the inescapable hit her. "Shit."

Alec blinked at Max's sudden mood change but knew her violent tendencies well enough to be able to tell that it wasn't his fault this time. Content in that knowledge, he asked amiably enough, "What now?"

But Max had already spun around, having spotted Sketchy coming by her, and caught his arm quickly and effectively. "Where's Original Cindy?" she took a deep breath, reigned in her temper, and added doubtfully, "She already head off on a run?"

Shrugging Max's hand off of his arm, Sketchy shook his head in the negative. "Nah, Max, I ain't seen her come in yet." Suddenly, his eyes lit up in a way that had only started appearing recently, "Hey, shouldn't you know? Unless..."

Fluidly and efficiently, Max cut him off, sending a brief glare at Alec who was leaning against the lockers, looking all too content to let her fend off Sketchy's questions. "OC stayed at Rain's last night," she knew that the imagery of that would distract Sketchy from any other thoughts for awhile, "just seeing if she decided to come in after all."

Lies firmly in place, Max turned and strode over to the pay phone in the corner, ready to call Original Cindy and see where she was exactly.

"Right, Sketchy, ready to head out on a run?" Alec spoke smoothly, stepping into the void of silence left by Max's departure. Not that he really wanted to leave, he was just as concerned as to where Original Cindy was as Max, but because Normal was sending glares their way and looked about ready to spew another fairytale.

That being enough motivation for anyone, Sketchy readily agreed and made his way with Alec towards their bikes. "Normal's off his rock this week... Damn..."

Alec nodded, sparing a brief thought as to what exactly was causing Normal to act so strange before other worries took over his mind. Like, where exactly _was_ Original Cindy? "Ahh," he brushed it aside, "it's Normal… maybe he got a girl or something."

!~(*)~!

Rain shuddered slightly against the chill of having received yet another unsettling phone call. This one by far the worst.

She hardly knew Max, and then only as Original Cindy's friend who, y'know, happened to be a transgenic. Sarcasm, it tasted unbecoming to her even inside of her own head. But she knew well enough that her fellow X5 wouldn't be making something like this up. Wasn't in their breeding.

Tendrils of fear trickled at her spine, a startlingly slow sweep of feeling that spread and got sharper as the minutes ticked by.

They had her.

Which 'they,' Rain didn't know. But nonetheless she knew that someone, someone after _her_ had Original Cindy. Why the beautiful brunette hadn't answered her phone calls; why her friend Max was calling to find out nervously where she was.

It was everything she'd been afraid of since the other night when she'd known for sure, with out a doubt, that she had been found out. That she'd failed and she'd abandoned her mission and everybody knew, everybody that shouldn't and nobody that should.

 _Original Cindy didn't know, now did she? You didn't tell her!_ A nasty part of Rain's mind, which sounded suspiciously like her old CO, mocked and second guessed her.

Still, it was true. She hadn't been honest with her lover. Hadn't called and explained even though she knew that she should have. Hadn't protected her well enough.

_STOP IT!_

The problem now wasn't what she'd screwed up, and Rain knew that. Now it was how she was going to fix it. She needed to know who had Original Cindy and how she could be rescued.

Nothing was going to stop her this time.

If she had to come clean, so be it. If she had to go to Original Cindy's friends, her fellow X5's, and suck up her pride and tell them what she'd done, she would. Because nobody was going to mess with her girl, not when Original Cindy was her reason for happiness.

Shades closed, senses on overdrive, Rain started to make plans. It was time.

!~(*)~!

“Hey, Max…”

Half way out the door, package forgotten, several distressing phone calls made, and mind focused completely on her friend, it took a moment for Max to process who the voice was. Who the person standing in front of her was. Forcing her mind to do a complete three-sixty and focus on the multitude of other issues in her life: pregnancy, Manticore, Logan. “Hey… what are you doing here?”

Looking scruffy but sharp, as always, which had led Max more than once to wonder if he actually planned his messy hair all out, Logan stood by the door. Sensitive ears could pick up the faint whizzing of the exoskeleton, but he could not. “We didn’t get much of a chance to talk and you haven’t been returning my calls. I thought maybe we could.”

“Now?” Even though she knew that Logan couldn’t possibly know about Original Cindy’s abrupt disappearance, Max still felt herself flush with anger that he wanted to barge into her personal space and discuss his problems with her. He wasn’t her god anymore, not the most important thing in her world. _And hello, mood-swings…_

Logan was not an idiot. Despite rarely being on the - often well deserved - receiving end of Max’s anger, he had seen enough and knew her well enough to recognize that spark in her eyes for what it was. Rage. And, well deserved or not, very quickly she was going to come to blows. Which, in his case, could be especially deadly, “Well, I figured you might not be busy.”

 _No Logan, I’m not busy at work, why would I be?_ But her rage was already fading down to a simmer. Forcing herself to look at things objectively and using her perfect memory to recall that she had never vocalized her desire not to see him, Max sighed and looked down. “Look, Logan, now really isn’t a good time…”

Making himself take a deep and calming breath, Logan smiled. Stiffly, yes, but he was trying to accept this unaccustomed and unimportant role in her life that he was apparently now occupying. “Another time then. You can call me.”

Max had to give him credit; she suddenly had this urge to acquiesce to his every whim. Rush over and make it all better. But the difference now was that Max had seen through this façade, and her photographic memory wouldn’t let her forget the other side. Still, it made her less angry and put life back into perspective. Logan could help her; help her find Original Cindy easily with his resources. “Logan, wait,” she called out and waited until his attention was focused on her again before continuing, “I do need to talk to you about something.”

Suddenly Logan’s face was a mixture of joy and anxiousness. Motioning her to come with him, he spoke, “Not here. I wanted to show you something,” looked back to make sure that Max was following - she was.

Her decision was made. If Logan wanted to traipse her around the town to confess his undying feelings for her, or to force her to talk about her whole Manticore-induced pregnancy, Max would do it. The important thing was finding Original Cindy and making sure that nobody who had a grudge against her had her friend. “Well, let’s get going.”

Logan nodded, happy that he was finally getting a chance to do this with Max. Her now much pleasanter attitude was a good sign in the direction of all his plans.

He didn’t even come close to noticing the hastily scribbled piece of paper that Max dropped in the middle of the doorway on their way out - where it was sure to be noticed. Too caught up to care if he had.


	15. Traps

## !~(*Chapter 15: Traps*)~!

“No, the funny thing is, I don’t think you understand me,” words deceptively cheerful if not for the bitingly cold tone in which they were delivered. This was not up for discussion, her voice made that apparent.

From the other end of the phone line a voice, sharp and decisive but distinctly male, replied steadily in the face of her unrelenting anger. “I understand you. It is no longer safe for you to be there. You understand that. Yet, you continue to stay long after any tactical advantage could be seen.”

Her voice edging towards frantic now, Rain paced her apartment in quick, long strides, the repetition doing little to calm her frazzled nerves. “I don’t give a damn about tactical advantages… Riles, you have to realize that… it’s not about trying to escape and evade anymore…”

Through the phone, there was a sigh, which Riles made no attempt to disguise. He could be heard rustling through items in his near vicinity, trying to keep his hands busy while he digested what his Rain was telling him. “Rain or shine, they are going to catch you if you stay there.”

The familiar quote did little to soothe Rain in the face of all the stress she was suffering. _Deep breaths, in and out._ She knew what it would do to Riles if she were caught, but she also knew what would happen to Original Cindy if whoever had her continued to hold her. “I know…” More decisive, her voice again clear, “It’s my fault. I have to clean up my mess.”

“Rain,” it was odd to hear such a controlled voice pleading, the wrong syllables elongated, wrong emphasis. Yet, pleading was what Riles was doing, what he would continue to do, if he had to. “Stay there. Wait. I will come there and help you regain tactical advantages. We will find her together. There is no need for you to be caught by White again.”

The mention of White caught Rain’s breath in her throat, so that when she spoke, it was quieter than normal. “I don’t know if there’s enough time…” The click of the phone against the cradle rang in her ears, long after she’d moved her hand away and resolved that she was only doing what she had to.

Riles would help her, she knew that, because he loved her, if for nothing else. But there wasn’t enough time. Not if the dreaded White was coming to collect his debt. Rain had known he’d be coming for her unfulfilled part of their bargain; she just hadn’t expected Original Cindy to be caught in the crossfire.

She’d known when she had agreed to the deal with White that it would be hard. She was a transgenic. Didn’t turn on her kind. Survival; Rain would do anything to survive.

Then she had met Original Cindy, and it had gone from hard to impossible. Survival no longer mattered, all that mattered was that the one normal person who had ever accepted her was being hurt because of her.

That was unacceptable.

Dial tone still ringing loudly in her ears, Rain grabbed her coat and keys, casting a last parting glance at a home she was well aware she might never see again. _So be it._ She would go willingly into the trap so long as the bait went free.

!~(*)~!

The camera flash was so discrete that neither occupant of the car noticed it. Both too caught up in their own tension at being in such close quarters. The phone call went unnoticed as well, one of the many hushed conversations going around as the car sped off.

The owner of said camera and phone, who reminded himself that as far as he knew nothing bad was going to happen, suppressed a guilty twinge in his gut. He was just jumpy, he decided, for no reason.

In the car, Max and Logan sat side by side in an awkward sort of silence. Logan had expressed his desire not to discuss anything pertinent until they arrived ‘there,’ wherever there was. And Max figured that her one word answers to his questions and strict silence otherwise was making her own desire not to discuss anything, unless it _was_ pertinent, clear.

Even for a bike messenger who knew just about every street in town, the amount of turns Logan was taking was confusing even Max’s radar. The streets were looking less familiar to her, the city still dense but without the expected multitudes of people out and about. Everything was too silent for her tastes.

Quicker than she’d expected (or perhaps she’d dropped off with her eyes open in the face of Logan’s presence), the car pulled to a stop, Logan looking over at her expectantly. Figuring that this was close enough to pertinent business, Max deigned to ask, “This is here?”

Looking as excited as a schoolboy on his first date, Logan nodded. Not much got past his careful Eyes Only exterior, but an event as big as the one coming up did, “I want to show you what’s inside before we start talking.”

Nodding slightly as she unbuckled her seatbelt, Max figured this was a fair enough request. She could humor the guy; after all, she was planning on hitting him up for information and then expressing her desire that they not spend ‘personal time’ together anymore. Opening her door, Max tried to smile and sound cheerful, “Great, let’s hurry up then.”

Logan got out of the car soon after Max and followed her to the heavy warehouse door. He then had to move in front of her, with much shuffling to make sure neither touched, in order to use a shiny new key to open the large iron door. Ever the gentleman, Logan stood back once the door was open, “Ladies first.”

Shrugging off the need to point out that she was hardly a lady, Max headed through the door into the darkened interior of the building. Transgenic eyes scanned the room easily, seeing more doors and tools but nothing out of the ordinary. “So, what’s the surprise?”

Coming into the building, Logan fumbled for a second before hitting the light switch. “You’ll-” There was no time for him to finish his sentence.

The heavy door swung shut behind Logan, without his movement, and Max spun around to see the noise. Eyes quickly adjusting to the now very bright light, she missed the men fanning out from behind equipment in the direction her back was turned. “Logan?”

Opening his mouth to speak, Logan didn’t get the chance. Not even two seconds passed and the men rushed forward, seizing Max by the arms and pulling her backwards, struggling into a smaller part of the room. Logan rushed forward in time to see the horrified look on Max’s face, but not fast enough. Another heavy door slammed shut before Logan could reach it, sealing Max in the tombs of this building with those men.

All sounds were cut off once the door closed, and Logan couldn’t tell if Max was fighting the men, as he knew she should be. Sinking down to the floor as though his exoskeleton weren’t on, Logan fished in his pocket for his every-handy cell phone. “You’ll see, Max…”

!~(*)~!

There was shuffling from many people, and locks being opened and closed. “Honey, we’re here!”

A flash of light nearly blinded Normal as his blindfold was abruptly yanked off and the owner of the excited voice gestured around ‘here.’ At first all he could see was the light and the arm waving around in front of his face, but slowly the light dimmed and his eyes adjusted.

The first things to assault Normal’s newfound sight were huge pictures of heads and upper torsos posted up on the walls. His first thought was, _wow, they’re all the same…_ But slowly differences started to appear. Different hair colors, faces… These were definitely photos of different children, though they were all dressed exactly alike and had the same stonewalled expression on their faces. That and each picture was roughly the height of Normal himself.

Unable to stop the question from slipping through his lips in the face of his lover and all these people, Normal asked, “Who are these kids?”

A high, nervous laugh tittered through the room, one person at a time, like a wave of amusement and then, just as suddenly, it was dispersed. From beside him, still holding onto his arm, Normal’s partner and benefactor to this meeting, loudly explained. “Remember when we were talking about those naughty transgenics?” It was a careful mix of just the right amount of innuendo towards Normal and disgust at the conversation topic.

Nodding but still not properly understanding, Normal decided to agree anyway. “Yeah, baby, I remember,” suddenly he wanted nothing more than to skip this meeting that he’d been begging to come to for months, because they could be doing more important things.

Again gesturing widely to the large pictures taped up on the walls, lithe body still pressed up against Normal’s and making it harder for him to think, “This is it, those are the transgenics, pictures of all of them in this one building. When they were little government freaks, of course.”

There was a pause to draw Normal further into the room and crowd of expensively dressed people. “This is nothing like your little wayside, pitchfork waving mob. This is the headquarters of the Anti-Transgenic Movement to get those freaks the hell out of our country!”

Slightly insulted but trying not to show it, as the description of his group of transgenic hunters had been fairly accurate, Normal asked the question that was suddenly plaguing him. “Then why bring me in? Why now? I’ve been loyal to this movement since reports started coming out, suspicious long before that. Why now?”

“Because,” even the normally sexy drawl was slightly aggravated sounding, Normal hadn’t been brought here to make a fool out of his lover. “Now… Now, we have them.” The hips of Normal’s ‘friend’ sashayed against him just as sinfully as if they were in the middle of a party where nobody could see them.

Happy with the distraction, Normal barely noticed the other’s arm moving until a screen dropped into the center of the room and information started to light up on it. “Sweets, what’s all this?”

Grin spreading wide, the other motioned at the text with obvious joy. “This is the wonderful information that one Logan Cale has unwittingly provided us with in his search to woo his precious Max. Like we would really allow that.”

The names caught Normal’s breath in his throat, making him wonder what his employee and her ‘friend’ were up to now. Actually he didn’t care one piece about Logan, but was rather curious about how Max had come into all this. “What’s Max got to do with all this?”

And then Normal’s breath really was sucked out from him as the screen changed from notes to one of the large pictures on the wall side by side with a blown up picture of Max. The caption reading, ‘Local transgenic, in capturing procedures.’ He’d had suspicions, but….

Smoothly interrupting his startled thoughts, the other spoke up, blissfully unaware of how nervous Normal suddenly was. “Everything. And her little boyfriend too.”

A picture of Alec flashed up on the screen and a cackle ran through the room, one man shouting out excitedly, “We’ve got the little bastards now!”

Another person in the room, one that Normal couldn’t see, agreed readily, “From those two comes everyone!”

Hushing the others in the room with a wave of a toned arm, Normal’s partner - and the obvious leader of the group - spoke, “And this,” it was suggested in a low voice, “is where you and your little posse come in, baby.” A laugh, “Don’t worry, White’s crew will deal with all the messy parts for us…”


	16. Inside

## !~(*Chapter 16: Inside*)~!

Just walking into Jam Pony, Alec was stopped by his phone going off. He took a moment to wave to Sketchy, who was hanging around the entrance, and then fished the little cell phone out of his pocket. “Yeah?”

From the other end of the phone line harsh breathing and scraping metal could be heard. “Alec, it’s Logan.”

Rolling his eyes, Alec was momentarily, and rather happily, distracted by a piece of paper that crunched under his foot. He picked it up with the intent to throw it away, but there was a note scribbled on it that he was kind of curious to read. _Right, Logan._ “What do you want?”

“Actually,” if it was possible, Alec thought that Logan sounded whinier and more squeaky than normal, “it’s about Max.”

At this, Alec’s breath caught in his throat slightly, before reminding himself that Logan wasn’t really high on Max’s list of people right now, “What about Max?” at the same time he began to read the note. Then his eyes really did widen.

Taking a deep and audible breath, Logan began, “I, I had no idea… Alec, you’ve got to come quick, something happened, and…”

The note read:

 **Smart-Alec,**  
I’m hitting Logan up for info on OC. I’ll call you to get my Boo.

Attention now entirely focused on Logan and whatever had happened, Alec demanded, “And? What the hell is going on, Logan?”

“They’ve got Max.” The piece of paper fell to the ground in a slow arch of twists and turns as Alec sped his eyes around the room, fully in Manticore mode. “You need to come quick…”

Harshly, Alec asked, “Who?” Eyes catching Sketchy’s and noticing that the other man looked down too quickly, wondering if he was imagining threats now.

“I don’t know, just hurry! We’re at an old warehouse down on 102nd St. and 3rd Ave. Alec, I swear, I didn’t-”

But Alec didn’t care; he’d already slammed down the phone and started out the door. Halfway to his motorcycle and Sketchy caught him, half stuttering out, “Man, what’s the rush?”

“Not now, Sketchy…” And Alec was off, brushing aside his friend in the fear that clutched him. _Who has her? White, Manticore, some sort of Anti-Transgenic mob? God-damn-it, Logan…_

These thoughts plunging around in his head, and knowing where he was going, it took Alec a fraction – one/fifth to be exact – of the time that it had taken Logan and Max to get to the old warehouse. The sight that greeted his eyes wasn’t nearly so pleasant as - if rather similar to - Max’s: Logan. Only this Logan wasn’t cheerful and coy, he was nervous and a little scared; Alec hoped it was of him.

“What the hell happened?” Alec was already scanning the building in front of them, straining for sounds, of which he could hear none.

Half sputtering in his nervousness, Logan hastened to explain, “I didn’t mean… I had information… they just grabbed her, and then they dragged her into this room, there was a steel door…. I didn’t have any-”

Again, Alec cut the other man off, not interested in any words of explanation or regret, he wanted to get Max out of wherever she was with whoever. “Not now, Logan. How many men? How far in was the room?” He was preliminarily scanning the building for walls he could scale, windows he could enter, and roofs he could get to. It wasn’t good enough, but it would have to do.

“I don’t, I-” Seeing the look that Alec was giving him, Logan hastily racked his brain. “I don’t know, ten maybe? They came out of nowhere….” He paused to collect himself and then hurriedly continued, “The room, it was back, maybe twenty, thirty feet?”

Knowing that this information would have to be enough, Alec made a quick jump to the ledge of a second story window, pausing to impart a last warning, “Logan, if one part of her is injured, I’ll make sure you get to feel it first hand. Skin to skin,” and then he was gone through the window.

As Logan stood gasping and bemoaning his fate, the work was just beginning for Alec. Using the advantages that letting himself slip into full Manticore training - avoiding all other thoughts - gave him, Alec scanned the hallway for a staircase. Listening to his nearly silent footfalls to hear a change in the rooms below, looking for something soundproof because he couldn’t hear anything at all.

Thirty-five feet in, the floorboards stopped creaking; there was a new room below, with reinforcements in the ceiling. Two quick trots later and Alec had found the door with a staircase and was bounding down it, where he faced the back of this steel-like vault of doors.

Small, indistinguishable noises were starting to become apparent – soundproofing wasn’t meant for transgenics – and Alec took a quick moment to regard the door in front of him. He eyed it for a few seconds and then took several great steps back before rushing forward and slamming his fist into an area to the left of the door handle.

Pulling his arm out of the three-inch hole in the frame, Alec reared forward again. Two more punches and his fist went through the door; he yanked it back just in time before the power circuits sizzled and the door swung open.

Taking a moment to thank his time as a thief for teaching him all he needed to know about vaulted, supposedly soundproof, doors, Alec stepped into the room. What he saw wasn’t entirely surprising; the ten guards that Logan had guessed were sprawled out on the floor in various stages of injury.

Of course, there were another guards, guards that Logan hadn’t seen or hadn’t counted in his estimate. Max herself was back a few feet, somewhat subdued to a chair but still very much looking as if she could take out the remaining guards if they offended her. She looked up at his entrance, “Alec?” Max wasn’t sure why his appearance to come get her was so surprising.

“Well, damn, looks like you went and started this party without me,” he offered a cocky not-apologetic-at-all smile and motioned to the many guards littering the floor. “Guess Max and I will just head on out then, let these guys sleep it off.”

Apparently the remaining guards didn’t find this teasing statement nearly half so amusing as Max did –though she went to a show to hide it, only allowing a small smile to appear on her face – and instead took it as an invite to attack. “Get ‘em,” chorused through the ranks quickly.

These weren’t your normal, average guards. They were White’s men for sure because they were stronger and faster than most, transgenics included. The fall point was that these obviously weren’t high up in the breeding scale and Alec had the far better motivation. By the time he was done with the rest of the guards, Max was out of her bonds and standing by the door, waiting for him. She shrugged, “Didn’t want to crash in on your fun.”

Nodding, Alec paused to regard the wounded doorframe, but quickly he gave the door up for lost, what with the fist hole through it and what not. Figuring that the guards would be out until long after their escape, he turned towards Max and the exit. “Ready?” A nod and they were off.

!~(*)~!

Half way across town, Rain encountered exactly the last person that she expected – or wanted – to see. Her instinct was to feint to the side and make her escape from this confrontation in favor of rescuing Original Cindy from wherever she was, but Rain knew better than that. “What?”

Her opponent took the time to notice that all lingering traces of obedience had fled her eyes. Rain was no longer making any show at following her orders. White wasn’t sure how he felt about this newest development, but he sure as hell didn’t want her running out before he could find out the details. “I thought you and I had an agreement. Your week is up.”

“Guess I failed this mission. You’ll just have to find a better transgenic to blackmail into killing their own kind.” Her voice was more assured than she felt, but at the moment her own survival was one of the last things from her mind.

Head tilted slightly to one side, White considered his potential actions. He could break her neck now, but then he would be no closer to eliminating Max than before. He could let this worthless piece of transgenic go, with the promise of death on her heels, and see if that brought him his quarry. Or, better yet, he could use her newfound connections to lure a false sense of security and then pull the string of her life and see if Max jumped. “Failure once is unacceptable, failure twice is intolerable. You have just lost your deal, Rain,” he spit her ‘name’ out with perfect disgust, “when I clear out you freaks, you’ll just be one more in the trash pile.”

Eyes darting from one side to another, Rain tried to figure out what her next move should be. It was a threat, but not an immediate one, and he could kill her now, if he so chose, she knew that. More importantly, he didn’t have Original Cindy, or he would be using it against her, and that crossed out one person from the list. Quick, “You’ll have to catch us ‘freaks’ first.”

White watched her blur off with an odd sort of satisfaction. He would find another, more reliable, assassin, and in the meantime he had a workable backup plan. Not bad for a day’s folly.

But the only thought on Rain’s mind now was Original Cindy, not any ulterior motives of White’s. If White and his crew didn’t have Original Cindy, then Rain knew exactly who did, and that was where she was headed now. Perhaps her chance meeting with him hadn’t been such a bad thing.

Aside from her family, Manticore, and White’s cronies, there was only one other set of people after her, and the only - aside from White - that would steal her girlfriend away. During their original spring from Manticore, Rain and her group –led, of course, by Riles – hadn’t quite known the lay of the land. Granted, they’d been on away missions, and were mostly up with customs, but with all of them together, it was a little harder to get away with crimes.

Her and Riles had been caught for some not so petty thievery – diamonds are a girl’s best friend – and, after only a few days, discovered that prison was not to their tastes. Breaking out had been simple and Riles, along with the rest of their family, had promptly left Seattle in little bunches. White had caught Rain and her sister, Kiko, at the collars, and Rain had given up so that Kiko could escape.

Lately, the police chasing her had been the farthest thing from Rain’s mind, but she understood now that she should have been paying a little more attention. A habitually photographic memory led her to the right street and building quickly, and Rain was faced with how to find Original Cindy and get her out.

With time most certainly against her at every juncture, and the fact that she’d be in trouble busting Original Cindy out no matter what, Rain opted for the most straightforward method: in the front door, out the back.

She managed to blur through the front doors and down to a deserted hall without being paid any more mind than a particularly violent summer breeze. Thanking the world that the police were less organized than an angry group of kindergartners, Rain continued down the labyrinth halls at a slower pace, listening for any sign of her lover.

Just as she was questioning this plan, Rain was hit over the head with a sign. Literally, Rain hit the ‘Detainees’ sign headfirst as she rounded a corner. Not one to question such luck, she hurriedly followed the directions, spiraling downwards in the depths of the police station. Three turns later and she heard a faint conversation.

Following the voices, Rain was led almost exactly where she wanted to go. Two guards were having a conversation with what looked to be a detective only three cells away from where Rain could just see Original Cindy sitting. Not bothering for discrete, Rain slammed forward, knocking the two guards down with one well-aimed set of shots and turning to the detective.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the illustrious Rain herself?” The detective sneered at her decisively, as if this had all been a part of his big-mouthed plan. “Come to get your little girlfriend?”

Standing only a foot away from the detective, Rain was quite a sight to behold. Her long, straight, blonde hair fanned out messily behind her slim shoulders, and her wide, gray eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the man in front of her. Perhaps she was a little skinny and perhaps there were purpling circles under her eyes, but nonetheless, the fire flashing from her very body would have been enough to bring a better man to his knees. “Detective, I do believe that’s none of your business.”

Not being a better man, the detective stayed standing and looked about ready to toss the delicate looking girl a round or two. Rain beat him to it. One leg came up and kicked him square under the chin, knocking his head up and back, and knocking him out.

Swiftly, Rain moved past the bodies littering the floor, pausing only to grab the keys dangling easily out of the one guard’s pocket, and practically ran to Original Cindy’s cell. She threw the door open and looked her girlfriend over critically, “Are you all right?”

A soft smile replacing the boredom that had been occupying Original Cindy since she’d entered this place and stated her piece, the darker woman looked over her companion and rescuer. “Sugar, Original Cindy ain’t never been better. You coming in like a pack of devils on your heels makes a girl feel damn special. Now, let’s blow this place and leave Mr. Up Town Intimidation to one nasty headache.”

At Rain’s slightly relieved and confused look, Original Cindy pointed to the detective and shrugged. Laughing slightly, Rain was so glad that Original Cindy appeared to be fine – she’d looked for any wounds and could only see slight bruises on her arms – that it took her a moment to think of a reply. “Anything else I can do to let you know how special you are?”

Deep brown eyes sparkling mischievously, Original Cindy couldn’t help but request, “If you can hack it, carry Original Cindy out of here,” she chuckled slightly to make sure that Rain knew she wasn’t serious.

Liking the sound of that, the big hero who carries out her rescued love, Rain grinned, “We’ll take the back way out,” scooped a laughing Original Cindy up fluidly into her arms, and they were off to avoid the guards and ‘get the hell out of here.’

!~(*)~!

Of course, the problem with the straight and narrow exit plan was that inevitably you were going to be seen. But, since all the guards were a tad bit unconscious at the moment, that was the least of Alec’s worries. As a matter of fact, now that they were out of the creepy warehouse and relatively safe, all Alec was concerned about was Max.

Having expected the worried look that Alec sent her way, followed by a long moment to take in all her potential wounds, Max shrugged, putting one hand up and letting her hair fall back from her face to reveal a purpling bruise. “Fine, Alec, I’m fine.” Answering his other unspoken question, “Just head shots…”

And just when Alec was starting to feel relieved at the rare look of honesty in her eyes, and how readily she’d answered before he could ask, understood his worries, another voice cut into their private moment.

A very unwanted voice, “Oh god, Max, are you okay?!” Alec had to fight the urge to snap the ordinary’s neck, but he figured Max might still be a bit angry at the needless violence, if nothing else.

Alec watched the wall instantly slide down Max’s face, removing all traces of emotion, be they ever so small. It made Alec realize that he’d seen this blank expression many times before, and shockingly, quite a few of them had been around Logan. _Heh. Asshole deserves it._ Alec’s only hope was the small sparks flashing in Max’s eyes that he prayed to anything and everything meant violence. “Gee, Logan, getting her trapped by White’s men just assures that she’ll be safe and sound, thanks so much for caring.”

This time, Max shot him a look for the sarcasm, but he was pretty sure it was an ‘I can handle this’ look, meaning she didn’t mind all that much. Sure enough, she squared her attention to Logan, shoulders back, stance rigid, voice cool. “This,” she gestured toward her already healing bruises, “is what you wanted to show me? That I trust you enough so that you can betray me? Hurt me even though you can’t touch me?”

Despite her calm façade, the hurt in her words was obvious. She had trusted Logan to lead her in the right direction, and he had delivered her to the enemy. Or, at least, one of them.

An overwhelming feeling of guilt and amazement washed over Logan; guilt at his part in the bruises on her body, and amazement that neither of the two transgenics in front of him were offering him to death right now. Still, he knew he had to try to explain. “Max… I didn’t… I had intelligence that there was transgenic information here… a secret room that might help find others… I didn’t know, I swear I had no idea that it was a trap…” Trying to reign in the pleading and pain from his voice, and failing, “I just wanted to help…”

This time, some of the pain in Max’s eyes was allowed to come forward, though her voice stayed strong. “You’ve helped enough,” the slight waver of her upper lip showed just how much his help had meant.

Desperate, knowing without being told that if Max walked away this time, she wouldn’t come back, would never understand, Logan continued despite the warning flashing at him from Alec’s eyes. “I-I just wanted you back!” It came out before he could stop it and, knowing he couldn’t leave it there, Logan continued, “I thought if I gave you back your siblings, gave you what you wanted, it would all be okay again…”

The two transgenics in front of Logan stayed silent and stoic, nonmoving, as the man in front of them broke down, sinking to the ground and letting some tears escape. “I’ m so sorry, I didn’t come here first, I thought it was all checked out, safe, and I was so… stupid… God, I was so stupid…”

Finally, Max kneeled down in front of her former friend and kind-of-boyfriend of Once Upon A Time Long, Long Ago, and shook her head slowly, wanting to be clear and stop this once and for all. “ Logan,” she looked like she was having trouble saying his name, “since – the things you’ve said and done… you can’t fix that. You can’t make it all okay again because it never will be. I want you to stop trying to control me, stop calling me, and stop coming to see me… If – if we ever meet again, it’ll be because I say so, and barring that, I never want to see you again.”

Still fighting to hold onto her stoic mask, Max turned back to Alec, who was still standing to her side and slightly behind her, respecting her wishes to handle this on her own. A nod and he stepped forward, right next to her, and as one they turned to walk away, to his bike - long strides perfectly in sync.

From his broken-down position by his car, Logan watched one of the loves of his life walk out of it forever, watched her and Alec climb on his bike and leave, without anymore words. And with startling clarity, Logan realized that it never would have mattered what he gave Max, what he did for her, because even if this hadn’t turned out so wrong, she didn’t want anything he had to offer.

It took more strength than Logan knew he had to rise up, get in his car, and drive in the opposite direction with this new knowledge hanging over him.

Max didn’t want him.


	17. Frustration

## !~(*Chapter 17: Frustration*)~!

“What do you mean, she got away? What about the hacker?” there was a crash as the phone hit the wall and shattered, its old plastic easily overcome by the paint and wood.

Instinctively, Normal opened his mouth to ask ‘are you gonna pay for that,’ but stopped himself just in time, remembering this wasn’t another of his employees. This was special, and functional, and storming through his office… “Baby?”

Stalking blurrily through his vision, the Master of Parties spoke words that Normal had never expected to hear. “The party’s cancelled.”

Fumbling for his glasses on the table, Normal wondered if his hearing was going as well. “The party’s cancelled?” then, because he realized it was a little juvenile to repeat what had just been said, he added, “Why?”

Sneering in disgust, that Normal wasn’t entirely sure whom it was directed at, the Master of Parties angrily answered, “ Why do you think? Escape.” Muttering quieter now, almost as if Normal’s presence had been forgotten, “Never trust someone else to do the work, damnit. ‘Faster and stronger, can catch a transgenic easily,’ well that was the worst pick-up-kidnapper line ever.”

Not one to be brushed to the side, especially by his own lover, Normal questioned, “Pick-up-kidnapper? What do you mean?”

Quickly remembering who else was in the room, Normal’s partner turned and gave him a disarming smile, drawling out, “Oh, it just means that we won’t be needing your little group, after all. Someone’s beat us to the punch, for the time being.”

As if that statement hadn’t been perfectly vague, Normal’s partner sidled up to him, pressing all the best body parts together – if it was a distraction tactic, Normal was falling for it head first. “Nothing important then…”

Hell, Normal was quickly forgetting what they’d been talking about. “No. Since there’s no party, it means we can spend some time alone…” _Right, the party._

That one reminder was enough to bring Normal’s world back into focus. For one, he remembered where they were. “Not here,” he fumbled away from the advances being made.

And suddenly, it was glaringly apparent that the anger over the cancelled party was far from gone. Sharper than Normal had ever heard it, the voice demanded, “Why not?”

Pulling at his starched collar, Normal’s resolve was set. He was a man of priorities, and he knew what was really important – his job, for one. “Because any amount of people could just walk right in. I’m supposed to be actually working. Any sign of weakness and the masses will start revolting.”

The half-joke was enough to soften the intensity on his lover’s face, enough so that he didn’t feel so horribly bad about pulling away. “What am I supposed to do?”

Normal mulled this over. Normally, while he was at work, there was a party to distract the other. But, apparently, that didn’t work out this time. Cautiously, he queried, “Get some sleep?” He wasn’t sure when exactly sleep fit into his lover’s day.

“Screw sleep,” was the immediate reply; then it was softened with a laugh. “You’re right though…”

Taking a deep breath, even though he wasn’t sure what made him so nervous all-of-a-sudden, Normal nodded, hastily finding his glasses and putting them back on. “See you later, then.”

Almost out of the door, the other paused, “And if you see your little messengers, you know what to do.” It was more of a command, but the drawl gave it a softer tone, which Normal couldn’t help but nod in response to.

As the door swung shut, Normal couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to his well-structured little life, and who he was going to blame for it. The answers weren’t what he wanted, so he brushed them off and tried to focus. _Right, work._

!~(*)~!

By the time the door was pushed open, they were kissing and laughing and hugging and Original Cindy was doing everything in her power to make them both forget anything but each other. Original Cindy had stopped along the way to page Max that she was okay and wouldn’t be home – now it was time for them.

Rain fumbled to lock the door, while Original Cindy did her best to get the light switch on – neither leaving the other’s arms for more than a moment.

“W-wait,” Rain was trying to focus her senses, but her girlfriend was making it more than difficult. She glanced around the room and saw nothing, but it did little to relieve her unease. _We have to talk._

But Original Cindy was having none of it – she snuggled closer to Rain and placed one delicately manicured finger over the other’s lips. “Suga, whatever it is, it can wait ‘til morning. This is the part where Original Cindy’s big, strong, transgenic heroine sweeps her off of her feet. Now, don’t tell Original Cindy that she gonna have to find a replacement.”

Common sense taking a quick vacation in order of priorities, Rain finally succeeded in turning on the light switch. “Don’t you dare!” If she was going to come clean about _everything,_ Rain wanted one more night to remember.

“How … emotional…” came a highly sarcastic male voice from the other side of the room. Slowly, a figure rose up from the couch, becoming visible in the lights as Original Cindy and Rain stood still by the door.

Taking a step in front of Original Cindy and casting her best ‘don’t even try it’ look, Rain tried to shake off her pleasant nighttime thoughts and get back into the game.

Ignoring her possessive gesture, the man circled closer, fixing all his attention on the darker woman. “And, you must be Original Cindy,” he took a moment to smile at the startled look that Original Cindy flashed him, “Our darling Rain has told me so much about you.”

Eyes cast downward from her girlfriend’s questioning stare, Rain sighed, “Riles … don’t…”

Suddenly all the attention was on Rain. Unblinking, eyes flashing, Riles stared at the other transgenic. “Don’t what, Rain? Don’t wait for backup – that’s you. Don’t stay in Seattle? Again, you. Don’t come rescue you where your survival instinct has obviously failed? Too late, I’m here.”

Having had more than enough of this little transgenic-rant, Original Cindy stepped forward and placed her hands on her hips – complete with an expression that would stop the coldest monster dead in its tracks. “Original Cindy’s had about enough of this macho transgenic bullshit.” It came out louder than she’d intended in the sudden silence of the room.

She absolutely refused to be disturbed as the two transgenics (could it be more obvious?) cocked their heads to the side and gave twin looks of confusion that Original Cindy had only seen on every other transgenic she’d ever met. “Whatever it is, it can wait at least twenty-four hours from OC’s homecoming party, so keep your head from exploding, Muscle-Boy, and get in line.” A long finger pointed to a line that was definitely outside of the apartment.

While Riles was trying to decide whether to be insulted, angry, or impressed at the outburst, and Original Cindy stood waiting for him to exit the building, it was Rain who spoke up. “Actually, it shouldn’t wait…” she avoided her lover’s eyes, “Cindy, we need to talk. All of us.”

Balking at the use of her name without the ‘original’ prefix, Original Cindy turned to the nearest couch where –surprise, surprise – Mr. Speedy & Unstable was already sitting. A deep, steadying breath, “Lord, Suga, what is it?”

Rain cast her eyes quickly from the other two occupants of her apartment, beginning to pace in slow, small circles as far away from them as possible. “When I met you, it wasn’t an accident… well, it was, but not the way…” she paused, her eyes larger and full of what could have been tears that wouldn’t be shed. Rain exhaled sharply, blowing a stray lock of hair out of her face. “That night, at Crash? I was there for a reason… To take out two other transgenics…”

By the sharp intake of breath, Rain didn’t have to look up to know that Original Cindy wouldn’t need three guesses on who those transgenics were. Hastily, before assumptions could be made, she continued. “A couple months ago, I was collected by White,” a harsh laugh escaped bitter lips. “In exchange for my life, I got to work for him. Rounding up and taking out my own kind.”

When she finally stopped and looked up, all the emotion had drained from her visage. Grey, emotionless, bitter and broken, she left the façade in favor of the truth. “If I hadn’t met you that night… I was supposed to catch your friends as they left. A surprise sniper – no time for escape and evade.”

The joke was hollow and so was Rain, as if she herself couldn’t believe what would have happened. What she’d been forced to become. Stunned, drained, she sank to the floor – a picture of too thin limbs and too wild hair, eyes, heart.

From the deep void beyond her admission, a male voice spoke up. Unsympathetic but understanding, “And now that Rain has revoked her end of the deal, White and half the Seattle police force are after her. They know you’re here, Rain, it’s time to go.”

A soft touch of a hand, brushing back Rain’s hair, drowned Riles’ dire and immediate warning to a halt. Kneeling next to her girlfriend, Original Cindy slowly wrapped her arms around the stronger woman. “There’s more to this, and you’re going to tell Original Cindy every last detail,” she paused, unbidden the thought flashing through her mind that Alec and Max probably _wouldn’t_ have been paying enough attention that night, then whispered ever-so-gently, “But we’ve got _twenty-four hours_ and we’ll figure it out.”

It wasn’t a full explanation, an apology, or forgiveness, but there was time for all that. At least, there was twenty-four hours before the dire warnings and horrible implications were going to get their say.

!~(*)~!

Half-draped against Alec, eyes closed and body navigating only by force of transgenic habit, Max ascended the stairs towards his apartment. Even the motorcycle ride had done little to relieve her raging emotions and the ache of her body.

Max was tired.

She was tired of being in situations she didn’t want to be in. Tired of always having to fight everywhere she went, tired of the misunderstandings and the stress and the never-ending barrage of issues that engulfed her life. Tired of being betrayed every time she tried to open up. Tired of being the strong one, always. Of being bruised inside and outside and never letting it show.

For once, she was genuinely happy to have Alec to lean on. There had been no smart-ass remarks, no useless conversation, no talking. There had just been someone that she could hold on to - to let herself be guided by the fact that, if a problem came up, Alec would take care of it. For the first time in what Max could remember of her twenty years, she let herself dose in the weariness – relaxed her senses.

Until her shark DNA caught up with her emotional state, Max was more than willing to rest and just be _left alone_ by the world, for once.

_I hope Alec remembered to stock up on milk…_

A quiet but venomous, “Fuck,” reached her ears and Max opened her eyes hastily.

Quickly but efficiently, Alec disentangled himself from Max (careful of his sore hand) and moved to step inside his apartment. It was trashed – furniture, belongings, everything was strewn about so that even stepping inside required careful analysis of the floor. Max hung by the door, slipping back into awareness, as Alec disappeared in the mess, “Guess there’s no milk, huh?”

From somewhere outside her line of view, Alec chuckled, momentarily letting up on the mumbled curses and irritation. “Eh, I needed to go shopping anyway.”

Max could tell his heart wasn’t in the joke though. After the day they’d had, there was no chance that this was just an ordinary robbery – someone had come looking for them. Sighing, Max bent down and started to clear a small path in the chaos.

One item strewed among the wreckage caught her attention – a brightly bound book. _I never figured Alec for much of a reader…_ Max laughed internally, knowing that she hardly had time to read either. Then she turned the book over and caught the title. A choked gasp escaped her and Max fought against the thoughts that went whizzing through her mind.

Returning laden down with a dark duffle bag, Alec bent to pick a jacket up out of the mess before he turned to Max. “It’s a shame. I really liked this apartment. You ready-” he caught the look on her face and what Max was holding.

But Max was turning over a new leaf – one that said she couldn’t blame him for being prepared when she so obviously wasn’t. Shrugged and tossed the book in Alec’s bag as she headed out the door. “This better not be a crack at my naming abilities, Alec.”

It took Alec a minute to follow, staring first down at the baby book in his bag and then up at Max’s playfully retreating form. Remembered that she was tired and would probably get irritated quickly. Grinned, “Whatever you say, Roomie.”

He had the door closed and locked in time to catch Max’s horrified look. Kept right on smiling, “What, you thought I was gonna leave you alone with one of our many good friends closing in on our asses? Your place or Joshua’s?”

Taking a deep breath, Max waited for Alec to catch up to her and simply nodded. She wasn’t ready for another fight. “My place, tonight, since OC’s apparently crashing at Rain’s. Then,” she caught Alec’s hopeful and determined grin and relented – biting back the bitchy comment that was waiting, “we’ll figure the rest of it out in the morning.”

As Alec slipped back onto his bike and felt Max fold against him, leaning her head on his shoulder, all he could do was nod. After the events with Logan, Original Cindy, and now his apartment, he was surer than ever that this was where he was supposed to be. With Max.


	18. Slipping

## !~(*Chapter 18: Slipping*)~!

Harsh banging on the door first woke Alec. Groggy, it took him a minute to realize that he wasn’t in his own bed, and that he was apparently alone.

Rubbing his eyes while carefully avoiding his injured hand, Alec berated the fact that he was _so not a morning person,_ and headed to investigate. And to make the banging stop. “Hold on. Coming,” he yelled to the abiotic presence of the walls, in the general direction of whoever was outside.

The bathroom door was closed, with the light on, and Alec could hear the shower running, so he made the leap of assumption that Max was in there. _Guess her shark DNA caught up with her after last night._ For all her exhaustion, Max had ended up feeling rather ill and they’d both been up most of the night while she determined her couch unsuitable for habitation and used Alec as a pillow.

Despite major transgenic clean-up efforts (mostly his) the night before, the apartment was still a bit of a mess from Original Cindy’s kafuffle. Still, it was more habitable than his. The only new additions included a half-drunk glass of milk leaving a sticky ring on the kitchen countertop and Max’s pager lying nearby on a chair. No messages.

Satisfied that he was reasonably awake, Alec found his bag and pulled on a shirt as he reached the door. He really hoped that it wasn’t Original Cindy come home early and (understandably) without her keys. The door swung open.

On one side stood Alec, clad in his boxers and a white T-shirt, hair rumpled into funny shapes and giving his best impression of a drowsy tiger. On the other stood a wide-eyed, wild-haired Sketchy, nervously hammering at the door for all he was worth. “Man, you gotta let me in… I gotta explain… Where’s Max – Max?”

Instinctively wary of pissing off Max and dealing with large amounts of explanations, Alec made a shh-ing gesture and pushed past Sketchy, closing the door behind him. Immediately, the shaking of Sketchy’s hands and panicked tone to his voice registered with Alec. “Never mind. Sketchy, what’s going on?”

Eyes flitting across the deserted hallway nervously, Sketchy gave Alec only a cursory glance. “Look, I didn’t mean… I had no idea, okay? You’ve gotta believe me!”

Hands shooting out with lightening speed, Alec caught the other man’s arms and held him still, trying to get his attention. Pulled them both towards a deeper recess of the hallway, mindful of over-sensitive ears. “Sketchy.” Pinning Sketchy still with his eyes, “What. Happened.”

Rambling in his nervousness, Sketchy began. “I got this job, right? Real sweet deal - just take pictures, they said, that was it. Then, I dunno, it started getting fishy, right? But it’s this or spend the rest of my life stuck in Jam Pony as one of Normal’s flunkies. And if some stupid business guy wants to pay me for doing what I normally do, so what? All I have to do is tell him. Not like it’s a secret.”

The defense in Sketchy’s voice put Alec on edge. He had a funny feeling that this wasn’t going to go anywhere he’d like. Alec let go of Sketchy’s arms – just incase.

“I thought it was all innocent, man,” Sketchy shook his head, “then I start hearing things, seeing things,” he tapped his temple, looking more and more frightened. “So, I said I wanted out and,” for a moment the focus was actually on Alec, “you wouldn’t believe the things I saw. I was lucky to get out alive,” a slightly hysterical laugh escaped. “Now they’re coming from me and I gotta hide…”

Breathing a slight sigh of relief that it was only Sketchy getting himself into trouble and needing to be bailed out, Alec got down to business. “What’s this guy’s name. Who’s after you?”

From their side, another voice cut in, “What was the job, Sketchy?”

Both men turned to look. Max had exited the apartment and joined them in the hallway, unnoticed. Her hair was wet but she was fully dressed and not looking nearly so relieved as Alec had felt a second ago.

Fidgeting away from his two friends, Sketchy mumbled out, “You… Iwassupposedtofollowyoubothandtakenotes…”

Wincing, Max tried not to let the feelings of insta-betrayal get to her - they didn’t have enough information for that yet. It was better to absorb the blow as a whole instead of dragging it out. She could see Alec’s whole appearance harden (even if he did look like he’d just woken up), “Who,” it wasn’t a question – it was a demand.

Glancing hopelessly at the others, Sketchy looked down and forced out the reply. “Mr. White – I think his name was Arnold or Ernie or Andy…”

“Ames. Ames White,” Max hissed out a breath and caught the look of panic in Alec’s eyes. “And you led him right here.” The sting in her voice was physically present.

Sketchy nodded his recognition of the name, flinching at the last comment. “He can’t follow me that fast… I had to explain before he got me…” Looked from Alec to Max and back again, “What-” cleared his throat and met Max’s eyes, “What are you guys? Why does he want you?”

A look shared – no words necessary – and Alec was moving past her, back into the apartment to throw on his jeans and gather some of her things. He was already calculating the missing time from when Sketchy had first arrived. And how fast White was on his tail.

The still-weakened door creaked shut with a screech as Alec exited – bags in hand. “If you’re trying to avoid White, you should get out of town,” didn’t have time to laugh at the irony of him issuing that advice. There was no time.

Sketchy’s question was left only partially answered as the two transgenics blurred out of the building – the sounds of twin motorcycles roaring to life echoed in their wake.

!~(*)~!

After a long debate while hunkered down at Joshua’s, Alec was headed towards Jam Pony.

They had figured that any trips to Joshua’s were made in enough secrecy that it was unlikely to be ransacked by familiars – and Joshua had been so happy to have them. But, while the three were still trying to digest the news of Sketchy’s part in recent happenings and Original Cindy couldn’t be reached at Rain’s, the next immediate order of business became assessing the damage.

It had been quite the fight - both had been needed to reassure Joshua that it was going to be fine - before Alec had managed to prove that Max was hardly in any condition to deal with another fight. Besides, Normal was more likely to let his Golden Boy sneak in and out than Max.

With Joshua there and Max on full alert, Alec almost felt comfortable with the plan. He made a fist and nodded, satisfied that the pain was receding. _Note to self: next time I punch through a wall, I have to use the other hand._ Being transgenic meant being ambidextrous though, and just because it was his lead hand, the pain was only bothering Alec enough to annoy.

As inconspicuously as possible, Alec got off of his motorcycle (chosen for quicker get-away potential than the less noticeable bicycle). Everything looked ordinary, but a tingle ran up Alec’s spine anyway.

Upon walking inside, Normal immediately fixed nervous eyes on him. Alec ran his current good hand through his hair. _Not good._ And headed up towards the front desk. “Normal, buddy, you’re gonna just love this. Some asshole broke into my apartment,” offered his best cocky grin and hoped real hard, “it’s amazing I even managed to find clothes this morning.”

The look on Normal’s face didn’t change. “I know what you are.” He shifted slightly so that Alec could see the gun resting by Normal’s fingers.

Alec took a step back – hands up in a joking manner so as not to alert the rest of the staff to what was going on. Just the same old Alec - late for work again. “Normal, c’mon, you don’t need that…”

But, while he didn’t grab the gun, Normal didn’t move away from it either. Voice lowering towards a whisper, “I never figured… they know now, they’ve known. Just pawns overall.” Normal shook his head, teetering towards hysteria, “You’re fired.”

Reigned in the volume as people turned to stare, “Get your stuff and get out. As far as I know, you weren’t here, understand? If you or Missy Miss or any of you little freaks come back-” behind shiny glasses, his eyes took on a cold, dead glint. “They’ll be watching… waiting.”

Not letting the impact of this information appear anywhere on his face, Alec nodded slowly, backing away a few steps before turning for the lockers. He kept his pace relaxed and steady, waiting for the other employees to turn their attention to something else.

Reaching his locker, Alec quickly gathered his somewhat questionable belongings into his backpack. No one approached him, though a few looked like they wanted to. His exes smirked and turned away, vindicated.

Another couple steps and he was at Max’s locker. _Damn, I should have asked her for the combination…_ Across the room, irritated, Normal called out, “Bip, bip people, or it’ll be your asses next. Ingrates.”

Perfect timing, _what the hell,_ and Alec slammed his hand into the locking mechanism. It released, letting Alec quickly swing it open just as a few people turned to stare at the noise. He shrugged. They turned away.

Shoving the contents of Max’s locker into his bag without so much as glancing at them, Alec beat a hasty retreat out of the building before Normal decided to change his mind about letting him slide. _Fuck,_ he thought, _Max is not going to be happy about this._

As soon as Alec was out of the door, Normal let out a deep breath and grabbed his phone, dialing a number he knew by heart. “Nat? No… they haven’t turned up. Nothing’s wrong… just wondering… So, I’ll see you tonight…”

A click at the other end of the line told Normal that the conversation was over. Shakily, he shoved the gun back to the recesses of the counter and grabbed the next in the never-ending line of packages. It seemed hard to imagine that Alec and Max were the same monsters that he’d spent months fearing, but… _Nothing. Nat knows what she’s doing. Even – even if I wanted to, there’s nothing I could do._

Shook his head at the crowd that was hovering with whispered questions, “This isn’t a phone service. I’m not paying you people to gab. Back to work,” he glared convincingly and tossed packages at the nearest employees.

!~(*)~!

Clutching his suitcase in one hand, camera and bus ticket in the other, Sketchy spared a last look at his hometown. “Time to see the world.” As if he had a choice.

He wished – he wished that it didn’t have to be like this. All he’d ever wanted was to be a reporter – to help investigate all those stories that he loved to read in the tabloids, since the real newspapers never told the truth anymore. Sketchy’d wanted to make the world a safer place from a distance – to keep the people informed.

Spying on his friends had never been in the game plan. Neither was fleeing Seattle and some crazed businessmen that didn’t blink. But Sketchy’s one predominant trait was survival, and he intended to use it.

A few people littered the street and some stood in the fading light of the bus station, trying to keep out of the dark until the bus came, but Sketchy figured his best bet was to avoid being seen. _At least I got to talk to them._

Having always prided himself on living most of his life in a good way (a few minor illegalities didn’t count), Sketchy hadn’t wanted to leave without getting a chance to explain. He hadn’t thought anything would come of his new job and it had been time to do something for _Sketchy_. To take his life into his own hands and get into the spotlight.

Only not like this. This glaring light was more than Sketchy was comfortable with. And the look in Max’s eyes – he winced at the memory, wishing he’d got a chance to talk with Original Cindy or Kendra before fleeing shamelessly.

When Sketchy looked up, he noticed the people were gone. _Very not good._ He took a deep breath and tried to expel the bad gamma, as Herbal had once taught him. Or, at least, he thought so – Sketchy had never been that great at figuring out what Herbal was saying. “Guess the bus is gonna be late, huh?”

From the shadows, a voice answered. “For you, definitely… but you can come with us.”

Several men emerged into the dying light – cracking their knuckles _backwards_. Mutely, Sketchy nodded even as he turned to run, flying through the poorly lit streets haphazardly, his suitcase chucked quickly.

Hitting the ground hard, Sketchy moaned, “Oof,” at the weight on him before being dragged back to a standing position.

Behind the group of men, Ames White appeared, smirking as Sketchy was brought back by two of his familiars. “Well, Mr. Theodore, how nice that we managed to catch you before you left. I’m sure you won’t mind answering some of our questions.”

As Sketchy was pulled towards and shoved into a black car, the next question echoed through his consciousness. “Where. Are. They.”

“I don’t know,” Sketchy laughed because it was true and because it didn’t matter. Didn’t matter if he’d known and told or known and lied – this time it was him they were after. _Not gonna mess up again…_ ¬¬


	19. Lost

## !~(*Chapter 19: Lost*)~!

Original Cindy wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at how easy the physicality’s of her decision were. It hadn’t even been that hard to track down Max. If she wasn’t at Alec’s apartment or their own (both of which were looking exceedingly ransacked), Original Cindy had known that Joshua’s would be the only logical choice since Logan was out of the picture.

And, after finishing up details with Riles and Rain, it had been easy for her feet to take her to Joshua’s. Now, the only thing left un-dealt-with was standing in front of her. “Hey, boo.”

Smiling slightly at her friend, Max moved aside to let the other woman in. Joshua was tinkering around in the kitchen. “You see our apartment yet?”

“Looks like it’s been through a war,” Original Cindy mock-glowered, “you better be telling Original Cindy that some creepy-ass cult came after you – not that Lover-Boy and my boo had a fight.”

Max smirked, “Not to worry, definitely option A.” She looked her friend over and noted the tense attitude, “You okay? We were all damn worried about you.”

Answering the unspoken ‘what happened,’ Original Cindy shrugged, “Some Mr. Up-Town-Intimidation of the Seattle P.D. and Original Cindy, we had us some words. Turns out they was after Rain for some old cat-burglaries. Left OC pretty much alone.”

Nodding, Max let out a bit of a relieved smile, playing with the part of her hair that covered some still healing bruises on her face. “I think I can relate.”

Shuffling her foot nervously, Original Cindy forged ahead – never one to back down from a challenge. “Speaking of Rain – Max, they got some nasty people after my boo…” caught her friend’s look of understanding, “She’s gotta leave town.”

Not looking up or leaving time for an empathetic comment, Original Cindy quickly finished what she had to say, “And I’m going with.”

When she did look up, Max’s face was blank but her posture had become suddenly rigid. For a few seconds, the only sounds were from Joshua’s experiments in the kitchen.

Finally, Max gave a sharp little exhale and asked, “Why?” the helplessly resigned look in her eyes floored Original Cindy. As if Max already knew all the answers that needed to be said.

Closing the distance between them, Original Cindy pulled her friend into a hug, whispering her explanations. “It’s not forever, boo… with all the shit going down now, staying would just add one more big target sign towards you. Riles thinks it’s too dangerous and OC agrees.”

Pulling away slightly, Max nodded. If there were missing pieces of information, she didn’t question it. “You better not forget about me, holed up in some love nest in Mexico.”

Smiling at the joke, Original Cindy just gave a sad little shake of her head. “Lord knows I love you, boo, but Original Cindy’s got to go with her girl.” _Not missing another chance, again._

“When?”

“As soon as Original Cindy says goodbye to Joshua.” A little pause and Original Cindy had pulled Max into a second hug, “I’m gonna miss you, boo. Take care of yourself and that baby – Original Cindy’s expecting you and Lover-Boy to come visit with a Little Cindy in toe.”

Max nodded and sank down to the couch as Original Cindy let go of her in favor of finding Joshua for a goodbye. If she understood that her friend had to go, it didn’t make it any easier. _How many times should I have left, the way Rain is now?_ She didn’t want to know the answer.

It wasn’t long before Original Cindy reentered the room, Joshua hanging back in the doorway. Getting up, Max walked her good friend to the door, noting the nervous look in her eyes, “I’ll be all right, OC. Just take care of yourself, okay?”

Nodding, Original Cindy seemed like she was about to say something else, but didn’t. Exiting the door and offering the two transgenics a small, sad little wave as she moved to walk away _not forever_. Not forever.

!~(*)~!

The shaking had started before Original Cindy had arrived, but once she left, it only got worse. Careful to spare Joshua's sensitivity, Max sequestered herself in the bathroom. Just like she always had. This bathroom was darker and older, but it didn't matter.

She'd barely had time to grab her bag before she sank to the ground in the bathroom, her knees up and life in Manticore flashing before her eyes.

Max looked down at her long since discarded seizure pills. She hadn’t had a seizure since she’d been reprogrammed in Manticore, and now they were back, another reminder. Max reached out a shaking hand for the bottle and fumbled with the cap.

It was hard to deal with this right now, with her four-month stomach pushing against her tucked up knees. Finally succeeding in getting off the cap, Max gasped as about twenty pills spilled out into her hand. She didn't remember even having that many left, didn't remember much from that rush before Manticore Take Two.

Wondered if Original Cindy had restocked them for her, while they all thought she was dead. If her friend had laughed and felt foolish, when Max had come back cured. Or not. No Original Cindy to ask now, anyway.

Vaguely, Max attempted to empty the extra pills back into the bottle, but the memories were already starting and her hands were shaking. _I didn’t ask to be pregnant didn’t ask for the seizures again. Manticore, Manticore, Manticore, it's always them!_

Without thinking, Max grasped the pills and tossed them into her mouth, swallowing quickly. It didn't matter anymore. Max was sick of being strong, of gritting her teeth and bearing it - the pain, the anger, the loss. Betrayed and chased and it never stopped.

 _What kind of life am I bringing a child into?_ The thought shocked some part of her back into consciousness, grasping. But it was too late. The pills were kicking in. Never. Stopped.

She lay there stunned. Dimly aware that the seizures were still going as she slipped into a kind of hazy nothingness that the pills had never before allowed. No flashbacks to Manticore, no pain, no worries. She didn’t know how long she sat there, lost in the peace this nothingness allowed. _Max._

Max was still shaking… no… someone was shaking her, crying her name, over and over again, “Max? Max, please!”

Then the world was back in blinding clarity and she barely had time to stumble to the toilet before she was heaving up the pills. Her hair was being held back and there was an arm at her waist supporting her, but all Max was aware of was the fact that she’d almost killed her baby, almost killed herself.

!~(*)~!

By the time the world was bearable again, it was nauseatingly so. Max had finally overcome the border between blinding clarity and nauseating haze, back into the real world, when she was first aware that someone was next to her.

She was sitting in the once grand old bathtub, wet ( _that must be the source of the clarity_ ), and being held upright by Alec's arm.

Appropriate to the night he'd endured, Alec looked exhausted. But his grip was strong and when she stirred, he blinked sleepily up at her. His voice was no-nonsense. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," at the firm and suddenly not-tired look she received, Max elaborated carefully, "a little nauseous still, but I think it's passed through my system." Smirked weakly. "I'll live."

Unexpectedly, she found Alec crawling into the bathtub next to her, pulling her into his arms, seemingly more for his comfort than for her own. "You scared the hell out of me, Maxie."

"I had a seizure. I was upset." She was being defensive and Max knew that she had no reason to be, but she didn't like that Alec had seen her so weak.

For a moment, Alec regarded the top of her head, uncaring of whether it bothered her. Finally, assured that she was there, alive, breathing, conscious, Alec released her, climbing out of the tub and offering his hand. It wouldn't do if she caught a cold now. Changed the subject. "We should let Joshua know that you're okay, before he has a heart attack."

"You told him?" Max was suddenly wobbly and furious at the same time, even as she reached for Alec's hand to steady her feet.

A snide look was aimed above her head, "No, I didn't tell him." Waited until she looked grudgingly up, "He was worried."

Deflated, Max leaned against the sink and caught her too pale reflection in the mirror. "I know. God, Alec, I know. Everything's just been so crazy. I don't know what I was thinking but, with the seizures, I just wanted it to stop." Stopped. Looked up. "If you weren't there..."

Alec sighed, "Despite your persistence in trying to get rid of me, I'm not going anywhere."

Before Max was fully aware of his intent, he'd turned her around and was kissing her. Thoroughly. Passionately. Possessively. Reminding them both that she was alive and that nobody was going anywhere.

She was alive. "Don't ever do that to me again," whispered roughly in her ear, contrasting the gentle hand that lay just against her stomach, where it protruded from her wet shirt. "I thought you were dead."

Head muffled safely in his chest - safe from the pains that she couldn't deal with anymore, the ones that led her to extreme and unbelievable measures - Max murmured, "I thought I was too."

They kissed again. Dry, parched, frightened lips meeting one another softly, belaying the passion that raged between their mouths. Hands explored, gently, softly, what they hadn't had time to explore before. When everything had been so rushed.

It was still rushed, a reassurance of life by the undeniable pressure of passion building up between them. Alec was careful though, mindful not to hurt her. That Max was just barely there. She was, as usual, determined to prove him wrong.

Alec broke away as Max tugged at his shirt, taking the opportunity to voice one of his thoughts from the long night before. "We're leaving Seattle."

"What?" Max was halfway through removing her own stubbornly wet shirt.

When she paused, Alec's hands replaced hers. "We're leaving," mouths pushed together with a grunt, "Seattle."

Rushed out as hands reached for the bathtub faucet, turning on the water as they sank to the floor near it. "There's no reason for us to be here anymore. It's not safe."

Max caught his hand in hers as she pulled Alec down over her, "What's this 'we?'"

Gasping as they situated themselves, as he maneuvered the last pieces of their clothing away and slowly, balancing carefully on his forearms so as not to crush her or her swollen stomach, slowly entered her. "Move in with me."

It wasn't a question, or maybe it was. Max balanced her knees up carefully, aware that her legs were still weak, perhaps still slightly euphoric from the remainders of the drugs in her system as she whimpered, nodded, "Uh huh..."

Binding their lips together in a kiss, stealing the whimpers and moans from one another's mouths, they set a slow, deep rhythm. It was nothing like the first time.

Everything was so vibrant - both more vivid and duller than before - as the image of Max lying cold and pale, shaking, on the floor was gradually erased as they rocked toward a different escape.

She squeezed him tight with her inner muscles, pulling him closer, his penis buried in her vagina, and they both felt quite distinctly that - despite the outside surroundings - they were home.

Wrapping her legs around Alec's waist, locked at the ankles, as she arched forward to keep their mouths sealed in a lingering kiss, while he thrust powerfully over her.

The tender pace was new for both of them, set perhaps because they were both worn-out and perhaps because they were both frightened at their first real sex, and it built up in a slow, steady burn. A burn that did not explode into brightness and then fizzle out, but built up until its zenith, and then gradually faded while they broke apart and gasped for air.

Still overly cautious, Alec pulled out of Max and rolled to turn off the tap water - just in time, for they were about to be engulfed by a tidal wave. He checked the temperature, deemed it acceptable, let out the excess water, and turned to Max.

When Max looked up at him, so innocently concerned, she couldn't help the shaky smile that spread across her face. Alec was immensely relieved - just a few hours ago, he'd thought she and the baby might not survive, wondered which she was trying to kill - and now they were all shaky but all right.

Determined, Alec scooped Max up into his arms, noting that some color had returned to her complexion, and lowered them both into the bath. "It's time to start over."

Nodding sleepily, Max reclined, her body resting lightly against Alec's and both their hands covering her stomach. "Moving, huh? Where else do you think the black market runs so well?"

Alec smirked, "Well, there's always Canada."


	20. Moments

## !~(*Chapter 20: Moments*)~!

Layla Rachel Guevara was born nine months to the night of her conception.

Considering how hard the pregnancy had been on everyone involved, it was a relatively easy birth in one of the surviving Vancouver Children's hospitals, where more than enough transgenics had passed through that the presence of a few more hardly went noticed.

Having made it to the point where even sitting and standing were difficult for the once agile transgenic, Max had been more than happy when the birth finally loomed on the horizon. Alec hovered nervously over the hospital bed, threatening the doctors for good measure, while Max hoped that, once the baby was born, the seizures that had plagued her throughout the pregnancy and, once, almost ended it would finally cease.

What was the point of being reprogrammed if it didn't actually work? Max was through with the seizures.

Layla was born a Canadian citizen, without a barcode or any complications from the pregnancy, and, by those two virtues, was almost completely free of the people that so hunted her parents.

The Canadian government, officially, knew nothing about the transgenic population. Unofficially, it was entirely willing to help the numerous barcoded members of its communities.

Right after they'd moved (conveniently timed with a string of unsolved cat-burglaries several sectors away), Max had sequestered herself in their bedroom with the old edition of Naming Your Baby and other Guides to Parenthood for nearly a week, determined to avenge her naming abilities. Alec had joined her and, together, they had poured over the entire book, picking and discarding names before realizing that they would have to find two.

Middle names hadn't been in the transgenic handbook. They were determined that their child would have a name, a real name that would set him or her up properly in the world. In the end, it was Alec who made most of the decisions, though Max was adamant about middle names.

Had Layla been a boy, they would have named her Alexander Benjamin. As a girl, they had half decided her middle name should be Cynthia, when Max had stumbled through the R's and come across Rachel. Alec had been wary but Max was determined - Original Cindy would understand as she much preferred originality anyway.

Really, Alec had simply loved the name, and Max hadn't been willing to name Layla after any of her departed sisters - it hurt too much, though she was tempted to give Tinga's name a new life - and they wanted Layla to be a part of the new generation, not a reminder of the old.

And so Layla Rachel was born, keeping the name of Guevara, as Alec had never cared at all about his last name and Max had claimed hers longer. Layla proved especially suitable, as most of the key events of Layla's life, including her birth, had occurred at night, and the Arabic name was supposed to lend toward those born in the night.

Of course, lots hadn't been in the baby book, lots would be uncharted territory. Would Layla go into heat, would she have her parents' abilities, would she have a barcode, would she maintain the more animalistic parts of their genetic cocktails?

It was up in the air, as they were unable to locate a naturally born transgenic child old enough for nearly half of the questions to have been answered.

Present for the birth were several of Max's remaining siblings and the entire little group of transgenics that they had rescued right after Manticore blew. Ralph and Fixit paced up and down the halls of the hospital the entire time, waiting nervously to be reassured that Max was okay, while the others sat nearby and waited.

And when they first held Layla, with Max's lips and Alec's eyes and hair that was some mixture of the both of them, it seemed even more amazing that she'd survived the odds than they either could have suspected. Here was this precious little being that would have her parents' strengths (it was obvious from the way she gripped Alec's finger) and would be free, unmarked.

Whatever it was between Alec and Max - some days it was a relationship and others it was barely mutual toleration - they felt like a family.

Damn Manticore to hell, with its breeding programs and heats, surrounded by family and friends they were going to protect little Layla from all the baddies that were after them, no matter what.

!~(*)~!

All the normalcy that Max had spent years building up, seemed to have evaporated in the face of a baby. Transgenics were built to be soldiers, killers, not parents. It was completely out of her realms of expertise, and Alec seemed just as confused as she was.

Not that they didn't try, and they loved Layla, but it was hard figuring out what to do. Especially when Layla could move just about as fast as her parents before the age of three. And she was crying. Max was startled, "What did I... Shh, baby, I'm here. Mommy's here..." Max scooped the infant up, delicately balancing her along with a jug of milk, a pager and her favorite cat suit.

She'd been attempting to clean, while keeping an eye out on the babe. Even for transgenic eyes, it could be a difficult task. Startled awake, Alec came groggily out of the bedroom, reaching out to sweep Layla out of Max's arms, bouncing her lightly once or twice, "Aww, what's the matter, Laylie?"

Blinking up at him, Layla's little lips quivered, and she let out a piercing wail. Her transgenic parents winced. Max shrugged, taking a swig from the jug, "I have no idea." She began to undress, while Alec and Layla were still locked in an intense battle of wills, "I have to head out for this job anyway."

"The Berkinson place? I thought that was tomorrow." Max shook her head and Alec sighed, "I need to go out too."

They stared at one another, and at their wailing child (she didn't seem to be finding Alec's attempts at cheering her very amusing, though Max found it quite hilarious), contemplating the situation. Max took a deep breath, "I can't take her!"

"You went out last time."

Halfway through zipping her jacket, Max paused. They exchanged raised eyebrows. Sat next to Alec on the couch and surveyed her child, "Think she'd wanna play poker?"

Apparently finding her parents' distress infinitely amusing, Layla giggled and clapped her fists together. Alec shrugged. "There's gotta be baby games, or something. Didn't you grab that book?"

"I thought you did?"

As the child squirmed out of their grasp, quickly crawling along the floor, Alec and Max shared twin looks of terror. They'd already attempted to baby-proof the apartment - apparently they hadn't transgenic-proofed it quite thoroughly enough - and beyond that, they were completely out of their depth. It was all too normal - sitting at home, watching the baby, cleaning, cooking. Things they'd never been taught and were somewhat hopeless at picking up.

What did they have to teach her? Escape and Evade in Less than Sixty Seconds, or The Finer Points of Getting Information out of The Enemy?

Damnit, they needed the baby games book. Hopefully, it would withstand transgenic strength.

!~(*)~!

The little girl surveyed the busy, fenced yard, gripping her father's hand helplessly.

"Layla, we talked about this," a gentle squeeze prompted her to relax.

With a deep breath, Layla eased her grip to one that could be considered normal. Going to school, having to be 'normal' was scaring her more than she'd ever admit to her parents, who were so excited at the prestigious and exceedingly private school they'd all picked out together. It was even rumored that several other transgenics were among the school-aged population.

Not that Alec wasn't nervous. Public events were always a bit of a stretch for them, even with such excellent infiltration skills at their disposal, and dealing with Layla in school? It promised to hold enough surprises to keep Alec worried. Max patted his shoulder gently, flashing a small smile. They'd picked this school because it had the best chance of keeping them under the radar. "Okay, Layla," Max forced a grin and stepped boldly forward, "ready to meet everybody?"

Parents were allowed to wander around a bit on the first day, which Alec and Max were taking advantage of. They had no idea what a real school situation was like - and they could only hope that it wouldn't compare to their own 'schooling' in any way.

The first grade teacher came up to them, grinning too happily and addressing the little girl, "Ooh, you must be Layla. I'm Miss Henderson. We're so happy to have you here, sweetie. Let's get you all introduced!"

The other first graders seemed to be just as confused, so Layla took the strange lady's hand - mindful of her grip - and followed her into the crowd. "When are we going to start school?"

"Oh, soon enough, sweetie, soon enough." The teacher brushed aside the child's stern question with a laugh.

Alec and Max hung back slightly, observing. Their own hands clenched tightly together so as not to be balled in fists. It was bad enough being out in public with Layla, but now they had to leave her alone and trust that she'd listen to their warnings. Max sighed, "She's getting so grown up."

"So were we, at that age," but Alec let that train of thought end abruptly. At five, they'd already been undergoing full on training. Arms, infiltration, electronics, torture.

They exchanged a look, reassured in their decision to keep Layla's life as normal as possible. To protect her from everything they'd been through and everyone that was still after them. "Look at them," Max's voice was slightly awe-filled.

The kids were playing happily together, the teacher gently supervising. It was so free.

Alec remembered going out on his first group mission, Lydecker close on hand to watch them. He'd been maybe eleven or twelve. They had to dress like normal children - at the time it seemed like some strange foreign custom - and go out in the guise of school children on a fieldtrip. The mission was to blend in, look the same, talk the same, act the same, be normal... _oh, and bring back information on the 'subjects.'_

He'd gotten into a fight with an Ordinary and spent a week in PsyOps for his trouble, another for asking too many questions about babies and families and where they all came from. It seemed he'd gathered just a little too much information. Alec had spent enough time in PsyOps by then to still leave him with nightmares, even from back after the '09 escape... he'd been the only twin to test.

Soon, it was time to go inside and start class properly. Shaking his head, Alec managed to clear it just in time to notice Max's own gaze sour. The kids lined up to take roll, and Max had a flashback to the lines of her youth, _'X5-452 reporting for duty, Sir.'_ When the image of them decked out in full military apparel, terrified of Lydecker's reprimands from failing to follow assigned protocol... when the image finally dissipated, the kids here were scattering messily towards the grand oak doors of the building.

It hardly seemed like the pulse had happened here. _Of course,_ Alec thought bitterly, _that's what we're paying for._ Fencing had proved to be just as lucrative as always because, pulse or no, there were always too many rich people too willing to spend their trust funds.

It was time to leave, as the kids went inside with well-meant waves. Max blinked, turning to Alec, "What do you want to do?" They were going to have their first real free time together in quite a few years.

Alec grinned mischievously, "Really, Maxie, you have to ask?"

"You're right, you know," Max waited a moment to deliver the blow, "I really need a good bike ride."

Turning to go back to the car that necessity had forced them into stealing, Alec grinned, "Just so long as we have a victory celebration afterwards."

Biting a lip, Max's eyes flashed, "You're on."


	21. Normalcy

## !~(*Chapter 21: Normalcy*)~!

"Do you have the cake?"

A sigh met her harried question, "Of course I have the cake. I'm still not sure why we _need_ a cake, but I've got it."

Fixing him with her sternest glare, the one that was now usually reserved for bad guys and children, Max started very slowly. "Alec. It's her birthday. It's important that we do this right."

"I know," he bit out, irritated by the volume of preparations this entailed each year, "but isn't Laylie a little young to care, really?"

They exchanged a look and Alec welcomed it when Max collapsed into his arms, both exhausted already. Sometimes it was just too hard trying to be normal, and neither of them really had any idea how to go about it. And it still had to be low-keyed and transgenic friendly because Layla had more than inherited her parents' powers and because there were still more than enough people that would have loved the three of them dissected.

Their weird little family.

They were so used to it that cat burglaries, rescue missions, and random transgenics showing up on their doorstep at any given point in time no longer fazed Alec and Max. It didn't matter that Logan had begged them to rejoin Eyes Only over his news feeds, or that Canada was less safe now than it had been several years ago - the secret branches of the American government were putting pressure on Canada to help them recover their precious, expensive military weapons: transgenics.

Sometimes, the most important moments proved to be the most mundane. So, when Alec skidded in the door several minutes before Layla's party was scheduled to start, the concern wasn't that he'd just been caught in a fight, or that sometimes he was the one who picked them - the concern was whether or not he still had the cake.

It was hard to find a real birthday cake in the post-pulse world, but not entirely impossible. Neither Alec nor Max were exceptional at baking, so they had undergone the task of finding a real baker for the occasion.

Moment over, Max gently extracted herself from her lover's arms, eyeing the cake box gratefully, and headed out to face the yard full of visiting transgenics and ordinary school children.

Layla was turning six.

And, oh, the trials of convincing a six year old that she couldn't beat up all the neighborhood bullies - since they were usually teenagers - really was quite impressive. So was keeping the mixture of Ordinaries and transgenics from paying too close of attention to one another. Transgenics were still skittish about Ordinaries, and Ordinaries weren't all that enlightened.

There were balloons, brought in from overseas, the cake, and a pile of questionably wrapped presents adorning the decorated backyard. Layla was playing tag with some of her school friends, and was being conscientious enough to let them win - mostly.

Original Cindy and Rain were chatting with an X6 that Rain had apparently known at Manticore, something about command protocol and how their latest trip to Spain had gone.

Max hurried over to greet her best friend, while Alec set out the cake and caught Layla's speeding form without looking, whispering harshly, "Go slower, Laylie."

As Max and Original Cindy embraced, Jondy was reprimanding her own son for much a similar problem as Layla. Original Cindy grinned happily, flashing an expensive looking diamond ring while Rain blushed, "You see what my Boo got for me? A diamond in the sun," and there was a slight tinge to her voice that let Max know the real Diamond was far from forgotten.

"That's wicked cool. Bet it leaves a great mark if you hit somebody," Max laughed, shrugging away questions of when she was going to get one - marriage was an idea that held little meaning for transgenics.

"Boo, you talked to Kendra lately?"

Half focused on a man hanging all over Jondy that looked suspiciously like it could have been her med tech, Max had to turn back to Original Cindy to address the question, "No. I haven't really had time to keep in touch."

Nodding, Original Cindy regarded her friend for a few moments before she spoke again, "The girl got a call from Sketchy, of all people. Turns out he's hiding in Africa after some run-in with crazy strong guys attempting to break his limbs." A delicately trimmed eyebrow raised, "Luckily they didn't get to his legs before he escaped."

Stiffened, Max tried to keep her face noncommittal, "Really, he has nothing to do with me."

"Betcha those crazy strong stalkers of his do." Rain rested a hand on Original Cindy's arm and the darker woman sighed, letting it go. "Well, the damn idiot's still alive. That counts for something, at least."

Alive. As opposed to in pieces thanks to familiars, "Yeah," and she had to run off to save some Ordinary parent from running into a startled transgenic fist.

It wasn't exactly _normal_ , but it was a start.

!~(*)~!

Alec blurred around the corner, skidding to a stop just before the door. He took a moment to compose himself and swung the door open, cocky and unconcerned as always. "There was a problem?"

The principal was obviously not impressed - just Alec's luck to catch a male principal. What was even less impressive was the little girl swinging her legs against the counter unconcernedly, wearing a look that matched Alec's perfectly. He sighed.

The principal looked between father and daughter, shuffling through his paperwork, "Mr. McDowell…"

"Alec," was hastily cut in.

The principal nodded absently, gesturing to the lone unoccupied chair in the room, "Please, take a seat."

Shrugging, Alec remained leaning against the closed door. Like Layla could really do something harsh enough to shock him and still be sitting there.

The principal darted his eyes between Layla and Alec, but didn't comment on the fact that both of them remained stubbornly standing - fidgeting a little even. "Your daughter was found on the neighboring roof during recess."

Alec blinked. "So?" He wished that Max was here to deal with this, he didn't have the patience for it, but she'd missed enough work already and it was his turn to come up with the excuses.

"So," began the principal with rising irritation, "besides being a violation of school code for students to leave the campus during recess, we - quite honestly - have no idea how she managed to get on the roof. It's been barricaded off for some years, and it took quite an effort to get her down."

At this, Alec turned to Layla, who offered him an unapologetic little shrug and dropped her gaze away from her father's. Alec was pretty damn sure that he knew how she'd managed to get up there. Damnit. "If this is about cost, I can assure you we'll work something out to compensate the time you had to spend getting her down."

Steadfastly staying in his seat, even going so far as to stretch slightly, the principal shook his head. "You misunderstand me, Mr. Mc- Alec. I'm not worried about costs to this institution. I'm much more interested in how a ten-year-old managed to get up three flights of barricaded stairways in under a half an hour, without disturbing the barricades at all."

"Really?" _Well, for starters, she jumped._ "Well, if Layla didn't tell you, I doubt I'll be able to convince her to."

"You're her father."

This time, Alec stiffened, not liking the turn this conversation was taking. "Yes, I am." He let the near threat hang in the air a moment, as he turned back to Layla, "Laylie, wait for me in the car, okay?" and tossed her the keys.

If the principal was planning on objecting, he thought better of it.

Once Alec was assured by her footsteps that Layla was out of earshot, he sighed, running a hand through messy hair and taking the previously offered seat.

The principal shook his head at the younger man, wondering if some strange tale was about to pour out, or even stranger excuses. "This is not the first time Layla has displayed… extraordinary… traits."

Forced grin #52 for negotiating made its way to Alec's face. "My girl's a wildcat, just like her mother."

"Ah, yes," the principal gave what could, under the right circumstances, be construed as a smirk. "Miss Guevara has provided quite an… imaginative… range of explanations for any odd occurrences."

Shrugging again, Alec waited to see where this conversation was taking them. If necessary, he still had time to snap the man's neck and grab the paperwork before anybody noticed that he was here. It would be messy to move again, but so be it.

Leaning over the desk, the principal whispered harshly, "I'm not stupid, Mr. McDowell." There was a pause, as he collected his thoughts and Alec tightened his grip on the chair sides, "But, if I can figure it out, so can others." He settled back in his chair and raised his voice to normal levels, "I would highly recommend, nay, demand that you have a long chat with your daughter, Mr. McDowell, about appropriate behavior at this institution. This is a school, not a playground."

Blinking, Alec realized that he had just been dismissed. The principal offered him a wink and went back to his paperwork. _Damnit_. So, they were being watched again. _Max is gonna be pissed._ He nodded and left - there wasn't much to say in reply to that.

There were finger marks left indented in the sides of the chair.

He slid into his car, turning the keys and glancing over at his daughter. "You're getting too old to play these games, Layla."

Startled at the use of her real name, Layla glanced at her father a few times before answering. Finally, she offered him slightly guilty eyes that usually got him to forgive her every transgression, "Don't tell mommy?"

"It's too late for that." And the car sped to life.

_Max is gonna be pissed._

!~(*)~!

The new bed was, admittedly, more comfortable than the last. A perk of their latest move, keeping them just one step ahead of White and Manticore and God Knew Who Else.

Last time had been too close, much too close. They'd been gathering transgenics together, across Canada, building enough of a defensive system that they'd be able to finally make a stand. To stop running and stop hiding and to finally be free. Of course, it had gotten too big, news had escaped and, before the perimeter could be properly set up, the group had to scatter for safety.

Alec stretched slowly, waking up. He rolled over and was met with Max's stiff body, a sure sign that she was wide-awake. "Maxie?"

When she turned to face him, her eyes were open and clear, but the agony in them was almost too much to bear. "I've spent my whole life running, Alec. I don't want to put Layla through this anymore." _I can't do this anymore._

They were getting too old for this, and they knew it. "This is the last time." Alec's voice was firm.

And it was true. A few more months and they'd finally have the force they'd been building for nearly a decade, finally have a strong transgenic nation within a nation. Enough hiding in Canada, they'd be able to go home again. Whatever that meant.

Her lips crashing against his were a little unexpected, in the moment, but nothing new. Enough years of raising their daughter together, and they'd finally developed the peace of what passed for a relationship. Alec pulled her closer.

Hands slid down bodies with well-practiced ease, slipping off nightclothes and hushing soft moans. It was a weekend - it wouldn't do to make too much noise. Alec ran his fingers through Max's hair, grinning at the way she nearly purred, while she rolled them until she was on top and kissed him again. Hard.

There was never enough time.

Bodies slid together gently, then faster, as a steady rhythm built. The bed remained soft and silent - quite an impressive feat against the force of the two transgenics on top of it. Max gasped, biting her lip to hold back anything louder, as Alec traced soft nips along her neck and collarbone. Her fingers dug into his chest as she sped the rhythm up.

Slick and sweaty. Max ground down while Alec thrust up and they both had to stifle the groans that wanted to erupt. It was a bit of a game, and they were good at keeping silent, no matter what the other did. "I..." Max felt her body tensing up in the telltale way that suggested she was about to lose her rhythm, "like... the bed..."

Alec nodded, hands grasping her hips and moving them against his own, when she threw her head back and opened her mouth silently, nails scraping against his chest. He gritted his teeth, not letting her catch her breath between orgasms, "Oh..." maybe he was a little distracted, "I... agree..."

Not that Max didn't have a few tricks up her sleeves, once her mind reappeared in her body. She bent forward, changing the angle of his thrusts, and licked along the trails of blood her nails had left, breasts pressed against him as she moved higher, sucking at his neck. His hands dug into her hips harder, as Alec ducked down to catch her for another kiss.

Their worlds exploded together, until Max was left slumping over him, gasping and nuzzling his neck, and Alec's hands roamed her back gently.

Suddenly sleepy, after being up all night planning, Max burrowed deeper against him, murmuring, "The last time..."

"Shh," Alec brushed her hair out of her face, his other hand still tracing calming circles along her back.

A chill crept up along his spine in an unpleasant manner that was entirely unfair, given the situation he was in. _The last time for what?_


	22. Effects

## !~(*Chapter 22: Effects*)~!

And so, where are we now, two years later? Still fighting to save the world; acting like we didn’t spend the last twelve years of our lives living and fighting together. Raising our daughter.

It wasn't as hard as we thought, at first, going back to Eyes Only. Enough time had passed that the minor pains of Logan's betrayal were nothing compared to years of heartbreaks afterwards. Enough details had come to light to suggest that he really was just that damn foolish. We've all been too foolish.

So it’s back to what passed for normal, to the easy banter we used to share. Every so often, something triggers a memory that causes one of us to break down in great heaving sobs and the other is there, just being near. People go about their day and ignore us. Especially Logan.

Almost thirteen years after the fact, just the knowledge of what Alec and I shared brings him pain. He’s older now too, almost forty-five, and he looks everyday a hundred - Eyes Only wore him down. Where as Alec and I are thirty-two and haven’t changed a bit and, with our transgenic genes, probably won’t for another thirty years at least. There’s not even one wrinkle for the day we found out for sure, the day I took so many pills and he was there, the day Layla was born, or the day we lost her.

Some days, like today, I sit here and remember. And I wonder if it couldn’t have all worked out - our little family. I think that maybe, just maybe, if we’d done something different we wouldn’t have lost her, if we’d realized the price for being young and cocky, that we wouldn’t be back where we were twelve long years ago.

Alec’s here with me, holding my hand; he’s trying to be there, to comfort me. Forgetting that the thing that brought us together and kept us together is gone, and so are we. I remember loving him, loving my family. But all there is now is pain, a deep empty hole in my chest that can never be filled.

Today is Layla’s birthday.

I have the bizarre urge to buy a cake. But I don't know where I'd find one in Seattle, and my baking is more hopeless than my cooking. What would I do with a cake? And, damnit, I don't know why I have to cry over that, of all things.

In a couple hours Alec and I will stand up, put smiles on our faces, and go to Eyes Only headquarters, where there are lots of others working. Saving the World has really become quite the business, complete with secretaries and high-tech specialists and enough displaced transgenics to actually do some good. We used to be the specialists.

We’ll find Logan, pretend everything is normal, and go off on our Mission Of The Day. Later we’ll go home without her, really without each other. Seattle hasn't been home for too long, and the only home we ever knew consisted of our little family - now there are too many members missing.

She would be twelve.

!~(*)~!

“Mommy, mommy help!” She’s screaming, struggling against them with all the force of a professional hit man. But there are more of them; they’re trained. We never wanted to train her, we wanted to keep her away from all this, and now it could- it just couldn’t be good.

There's transgenics and familiars everywhere, facing off in battles too fast to follow and too skilled to result in anything but deaths. And we were so close to avoiding this, to being prepared. Of course, they got here first.

I’m fighting off enough myself to give me trouble; trying to get to her, to save her. “Hold on, I’m coming, baby!”

And then, thank god, I hear him barreling down the road, “Max? Layla!?”

He sees us and tosses a questioning look at me. I nod towards Layla; I can take down these guys, but not in time to get to her. He seems worried about me, but Layla is all that matters and he understands, blurring towards her as fast as he can. “Fight them, Laylie!”

For a moment, the world stands still and I believe in him, in the fact that we’ve never lost. We’re invincible. And then I see the ambush of men catch him, as the other men are pulling Layla back. I call out, the words lost somewhere deep in my memory, and I feel a hard blow from behind me. The force knocks into my back and throws me into the pavement.

I look up and see Alec struggling against the men, Layla struggling, and I know neither of us will reach her in time. Layla screams to us, “I love you, mommy, daddy!”

It was all over so quickly, such a brutal end to her life. Alec and I were calling back that we loved her and that it would be okay. And then _bam_ they took her down, twisting her arms behind her as White came up and slit her throat.

 _White,_ and the scream that wants to bubble up dies somewhere in my chest as the chaos continues above me. Those must be tears blurring my vision until all I want to do is stay here and die.

Alec's moving, but it doesn't matter. They discard her body and rejoin the fray, White laughing until Alec's punch wipes the smirk off his face. Then several transgenics are on them, helping, punishing White for too many transgressions.

I find my way to her. Her cold hand in mind and accusing eyes staring up at something that wasn’t me, and I can't say her name. "I'm so sorry."

Somewhere, distantly, I'm aware that we're winning.

"I'm so sorry."

!~(*)~!

I still think there should have been something I could have done different, something where Layla would have lived. Where we wouldn't get to watch her die while we failed. We failed. Alec feels the same way that I do.

Logan says that it’s just leftover Manticore programming saying that we have to be perfect. After all this time, he's still a sanctimonious ass.

I say, fuck that, everything to do with Layla was leftover Manticore programming, doesn’t change anything. Besides, we were perfect, Alec and I, we were perfect in every fight, every chase… except when it counted…

When it counted, we weren’t fast enough. Weren't strong enough. Weren't enough of anything.

The others won the war.

Still, there were too many casualties on our side for it to feel like a victory. Alec and I bowed out, curled up to lick our metaphorical wounds, while the rest went up against Manticore. I heard they burned the places down - there were too many of them left to count. Too many sneaky breeding programs and too many genetically engineered babies that had to be rescued.

The world doesn’t know what to do with us, the Freaks that escaped some government laboratory. So, we slip back into what we were always good at. To the things we were trained for, only we don't have to really hide anymore.

It doesn't feel the same. It doesn't feel any more _free_.

"Max," the hand on my shoulder is familiar and the voice as hollow as my own. I turn to Alec, sitting up on top of the space needle with me, and I kiss him.

And there's that old, familiar, easy heat that we've always shared. Heated kisses and heated exclamations and heated fights. Even if it's never the same anymore.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the apparent necessity of first person reflective at the end of this fic. Oh, and the very not happy ending, after all that struggle to get to one.


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